"Dr. Bas Wijnen" writes: > On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 07:49:26PM +0200, Ansgar wrote: >> > Subject: Free Software Needs Free Tools >> > >> > No Debian contributor should be expected or encouraged, when working >> > to improve Debian, to use non-free tools. >> >> Does this include: >> >> - non-free firmware on Debian hardware, >> - non-free software for interacting with hardware, >> - non-free backup systems? > > You may be correct. In that case, this GR, if passed, declares that we want to > change that. Is that controversial?
The GR forbids using any of these. That is not helpful. As far as I know there is no mainstream hardware that doesn't require non-free firmware; using non-mainstream hardware is possible, but has other problems. >> > This includes proprietary >> > web services. We will ensure this, insofar as it is within Debian's >> > collective control. >> >> Does this include use of proprietary CDN networks, DNS services, cloud >> services (such as VMs or storage) or social network services (Twitter)? >> Again, you probably cannot avoid them when contributing to relevant >> parts of the project. > > Yes, it should mean that. Again, it doesn't mean people are not allowed to use > them. It means that people who don't want to use them can still contribute to > Debian. So for example, it would not be allowed to ignore the bts and only > accept bug reports through Twitter. So assume I want to avoid using non-free DNS and CDN services, but still contribute to Debian. How should that work as long as Debian uses these services? How should one contact people using non-free mail services? (mailto:non-free is probably not better than https://non-free...) Of course Debian can stop using CDN services and provide a worse experience for users, but why? Debian's goal is not to build and operate a free CDN service... Ansgar
