On Sat, Nov 08, 2003 at 07:11:41PM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: > It seems to me, then, that we are already in practice treating non-free > as less important than the main distribution. Moreover, we have been > doing so for quite some time. > > In this sense, the removal of clause 5 from the Social Contract would > simply seem to be an acknowledgement of the status quo, similar to my > proposed amendment to clause 3.
You seem to be saying that parts of the social contract which are less important than other parts should be removed from the social contract. > You'll note that my proposed amendment includes the language: > > We will support our users who develop and run non-free software on > Debian, but we will never make the system depend on an item of > non-free software. Like Anthony, I'm concerned that this says nothing about us distributing non-free software. It's entirely possible to interpret your amendment as forbidding the distribution of non-free software [without violating the above language]. "Of course we support users of non-free software -- XYZZY runs fine on our glibc." I urge you to consider language which allows the ftp archive maintainers distribute non-free software from debian mirrors should they deem this a good idea. Specifically, one which aligns with the ideals expressed in: http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2003/debian-vote-200311/msg00119.html > It is thus not true that, if my proposed amendment passes, that we're > encouraged to tell users of non-free software on Debian systems to go > take a flying leap. We will continue to do what we can for them. Taking a flying leap isn't the issue. The issue is what would the social contract allow us to do. [In the past, various people have said that Ian Jackson's original draft of the constitution was awful because of ambiguities contained therein. I thought you were one of them? Anyways, I don't know why you're pushing so hard for a social contract with this kind of ambiguity in it.] -- Raul -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
