> > If that's the worst problem that is only solved by non-free, I'd say > we're doing pretty well. >
I suspect the potential complete removal of GDFL documentation from the distribution is probably a worse problem. There are also the programs, like povray - which are 'too free' in that they can be freely distributed, but can not be sold for a profit. A lot of Amateur Radio programs come into this category, or into the expressly limited in their licence to only being used by Radio Amateurs. This is because a nit picking reading of the terms of use of the packet radio network may require this. There also seem to be quite a lot of programs which deal with the GIF file format (usually along with other formats, such as PNG) but which from the authors point of view are DFSG free. The most high profile programs in non-free are probably the large number of Netscape versions, and other programs which do not have distributed source. This last category is probably the one which has the greatest number of potential DFSG free equivalents. These are probably the 'low hanging fruit' of non-free, which could be removed with least impact. I would like to see a more thorough analysis of the impact of removal of non-free before a vote, and some assistance for people who use the programs to help them move to something better (and improvements to the free equivalents where they exist so that they are an obvious superset of the non-free versions) We are running a computer system for our users, and have a responsibility to handle transitions for major changes as smoothly as possible. Is there, for example, a web page with a table of every non-free package, with a suggestion for a free equivalent, to help users migrate ? John p.s. It is unfortunate that the section is called non-free, which carries a lot of implications, rather than read-the-license, since that is what it means. You can make blanket assertions about what you can do with packages in main (and contrib with caveats) and non-free just means that you can not make such assertions and must read the licence of each package to decide if, in your particular case you can sell it, use it to run a nuclear power station, use it in certain countries or whatever.
