[Fsuk-manchester] Why I won’t promote Debian as a free software distribution

[Simon Ward]

Trying to keep the thread of opinion on whether Debian should be
promoted as a free software distribution separate from discussion of the
guidelines…

If someone were to come to me and ask what would be a good choice for a
free software distribution, with their primary aim to run all free
software, I feel would be it would be dishonest of me to promote Debian
as that choice without mentioning the caveats: some parts of the system
and its documentation suggest using non‐free software, and the Debian
Project provides non‐free software, so if you want an entirely free
Debian‐based system you may have to take care to avoid the non‐free
software.

“Take care” could mean reading the documentation properly, rather than
skimming over it, and noting that it talks about non‐free software
(assuming it mentions that it is non‐free in the first place). If using
a graphical package manager such as Synaptic, watch your accidental
clicks in the configuration dialog or you may find you have enabled the
non-free repository. These problems may seem trivial, but for a system
that does not have this caveat, these problems will not exist.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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