On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 04:31:49AM -0500, Nathanael Nerode wrote: > Hamish Moffatt wrote: > > On Mon, Mar 29, 2004 at 01:21:33AM -0500, Nathanael Nerode wrote: > >> Raul Miller wrote: > >> > * There are people in Debian. > >> Fine, there are a bunch of silly interpretations as well. The context > >> indicates that "Debian" means "the Debian system" or "the Debian > >> distribution". You could interpret it as meaning "the Debian Project", > >> but that would be silly, because it would make the whole Social Contract > >> make > >> no sense whatsoever. (Are you software? Are you free software?) > > > > I think you are being too quick to dismiss Raul's comments. He has > > pointed out in the past that "Debian" means a lot of different things; > > it's a project, an OS, among others. > > > > So "Debian will remain 100% Free Software" is not entirely clear, > > given that Debian is a bunch of people in certain contexts. > > Why not spell out the context? > > Quite right and perfectly reasonable -- spelling out the context is a fine > idea. > > But it's essentially a different topic from the message Raul was replying > to, which was explaining that there are only two possible ways to > interprent the "...will remain 100% Free Software" part of the sentence, > and that his "and/or" interpretation simply wasn't one of them.
No, I still think you're missing the point. Once you admit that the meaning of "Debian" varies with context, it follows that "Debian will remain 100% Free Software" has more interpretations. Firstly, the two that you posted, but then: Debian (the project) will remain 100% free software - meaningless. Debian (the people) will remain 100% free software - meaningless. etc. Once you narrow in on "Debian the distribution" you might only have two interpretations, but don't be so quick to assume that context. Hamish -- Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>