On Tuesday 14 November 2006 03:26, Daniel Pope wrote:
> Tim wrote:
<snipped for space>
>
> > Maybe Debian was forced, but by allowing the OS to run non free software
> > do they have the conviction of their own philosophy??
>
> Total gibberish. Debian philosophy is to guarantee people the legal
> right to do whatever the hell they want with the software with the sole
> exception of voiding those rights for anyone else. That precludes in any
> way restricting what software people can run.
>
> Dan
Its not gibberish, Debian spend a great amount of time and much of the limited
funding they have to produce an OS that is completely free and as you
say "the user has the legal right to do what they want with". So along comes
Mr user and then install all the non-free software that Debian have spent so
long producing. The user is not interested in Debian philiosophy, its free
and it does what he wants.
While Debian does have such high morale stand point regarding free software
then maybe they should look at the end users as well, those users that want
free software (as in it does not cost me anything to buy) and are not
interested in the interlectaul property of the software and changes that
somebody might want make\add. You could argue that what K\Ubuntu is, Debian
which includes the non free bits, but it is not Debian.
While I can understand the Debian philosophy I find its almost in conflict
with itself because as soon as it hits the users hand the majority of them
are undoing Debian work and installing non-free software.
Tim
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