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

[MJ Ray]

Bob Ham <address@hidden>
> On 2013-02-21 18:06, MJ Ray wrote:
> > Bob Ham <address@hidden>
> 
> >> Mentioning non-free software is not the issue.  Instructing users on
> >> how to install non-free software is one of the issues, along with
> >> encouraging the use of non-free software.
> >
> > I'm not sure that happens.  It's not in the installation howto
> 
> In section 6.4.1 of the Installation Guide is the following:
> "Tarballs and zip files containing current packages for the most common 
> firmware are available from:
>      http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/
> Just download the tarball or zip file for the correct release and 
> unpack it to the file system on the medium."
> -- http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch06s04.html.en#id455972

Wow, that's well into the detailed guide and not much text.  Thank you
for finding it.

Even so, I'm not seeing the "encouraging the use" aspect.  The above
seems like neutral instruction and actually comes well after the
following warning (also linked back from section 6.4):

    "In most cases firmware is non-free according to the criteria used
    by the Debian GNU/Linux project and thus cannot be included in the
    main distribution or in the installation system. If the device
    driver itself is included in the distribution and if Debian
    GNU/Linux legally can distribute the firmware, it will often be
    available as a separate package from the non-free section of the
    archive."
    -- http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch02s02.html.en

That itself comes between the sections "Supported Hardware" and
"Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux" that has clear
instructions like "Let your salesperson (if any) know that you're
shopping for a Linux system. Support Linux-friendly hardware vendors."
and "Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware".

How strong would you want the warning to be for the instruction
necessary for people to be able to use the "free" driver not to be
seen as encouraging its use?

In other words, what's the bug here or what's a possible fix?

Thanks,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/