Re: [gnu-prog-discuss] Re: continuous builds and portability testing with Hydra

[Reuben Thomas]

On 29 April 2010 19:08, Jason Self <address@hidden> wrote:
> Reuben Thomas <address@hidden> wrote ..
>
>> Debian, after all, does not "recommend non-free software"
>
> If that were true, the FSF would have already included Debian in the list of
> free distros that they endorse. But it's not, so they don't.

That's simply not true. For the FSF to endorse a distribution, it must
include no non-free software at all, not merely fail to recommend
non-free software. Debian, as I already said, does still include some
non-free parts. This is quite correct, by the way: it's easy to find
distros that are 99% free software, and GNU's endorsement list is a
valuable aid to the goal of producing 100% free distros.

(I'd be interested to know whether a version of Debian that omitted
all non-free software, and also omitted software that GNU considers
free, but Debian does not, would be endorsed by GNU. For example, much
GNU documentation, such as the manuals for Emacs, GCC, and automake,
is currently distributed by Debian in its non-free section, because
the restrictions imposed by the GFDL make it non-free according to the
Debian Free Software Guidelines. It is unclear to me whether GNU would
in turn consider this a restriction of freedom or not.)

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