Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Talking about non-free software on the list

[Simon Ward]

MJ Ray <address@hidden> wrote:

>Simon Ward <address@hidden>
>> On Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 03:13:11PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
>Throwing out example-less accusations which are disproved by published
>policy is bashing, though.  Could this be a guideline: if you're going
>to accuse a voluntary free software project of some misdeed, give an
>example so at least it can be noted as a bug by its volunteers?

I clearly said to start with that Debian aims to be a free software 
distribution, so I'm not disputing that, and I am certainly not bashing it for 
that.

You seem to be unhappy that I have suggested, based on the FSF guidelines, that 
we do not promote Debian as a free software distribution until it has cleared 
up the remaining issues. Having a policy that steers it in the right direction 
is great, but that doesn't mean it has got to the target yet. The remaining 
issues, which I also mention in my earlier post are:

  * there are non-free software repositories hosted, supported, and maintained 
by the project (there may be documentation that references these that needs 
changing too, but I haven't checked)
  * the system encourages the user to install non-free software (this should be 
easily resolved)

I have pointed to the initiative started within Debian to try to meet the FSF 
guidelines. The decision was made to get the low hanging fruit first, and deal 
with the non-free repository later. That's fine, and I can see progress being 
made.

Now, despite everything positive that I have said, because I have said that 
Debian fails to meet the FSF guidelines, and I suggested we should not promote 
it as a free distribution until then, I find I am accused of "bashing" my 
favourite GNU/Linux distribution.

A confused Simon