On Thu, 4 Jun 2015 15:09:21 +0100
KatolaZ <katolaz@???> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 04, 2015 at 09:51:36AM -0400, Clarke Sideroad wrote:
>
> [cut]
>
> >
> > With all the effort that has gone into this so far it deserves to be
> > a major distro and it would appear to this guy watching from the
> > fringe that the necessary brain power is here, but without a
> > noticeably sized user base it will be seen through the eyes of
> > blogger/journalist filtered history as the few weirdos who couldn't
> > face the "future of computing".
> >
> > Do not forget the bigger picture.
>
> Debian has been a major distro for almost 20 years now, is the largest
> homogeneous package base in the free software arena, has inspired
> literally thousands of other distributions, and has never installed
> non-free stuff by default, or recommended the usage of third-party
> proprietary video drivers, or promoted the installation of non-free
> firmware...
>
> I just don't see the problem in continuing along this path. This is
> not what will kill Devuan, by any means.
>
> My2Cents
>
> KatolaZ

KatolaZ,

I don't think anyone's recommending nonfree by default or promotion,
*unless* the only other choice is "we won't install on this hardware at
all".

Rather than talking about the mechanisms involved, let me talk about my
experience as a user. Debian was fine. It offered me an easy way to
install nonfree software, which I did, but that was not the default.
Debian installed on all the hardware I ever had. Whatever Debian's been
doing regarding free and nonfree software, it's been working for me as
a user.

I think that for the most part we should continue doing whatever Debian
was doing. It worked, it worked well. Here are the two things I think
we should *not* do:

1) Refuse to install, due to ideological purity, on hardware we *could*
have installed on. As far as I know, Debian doesn't do this.

2) Deliberately obscure methods of installing nonfree software. As far
as I know, Debian doesn't do this.

SteveT

Steve Litt
June 2015 featured book: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/key