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Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 19, 2007 16:12 UTC (Wed) by NAR (subscriber, #1313)
Parent article: Insufficiently free?

That G.B. Shaw quote might be famous - it doesn't mean that it's true.

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Dec 19, 2007 16:19 UTC (Wed) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

To make it true, it suffices to replace "all progress" with "most progress".

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 19, 2007 21:01 UTC (Wed) by liljencrantz (subscriber, #28458) [Link]

All generalisations are false.

They are not meant to be literal truths, rather to make you reevaluate your assumptions.

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 19, 2007 21:46 UTC (Wed) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link]

Are you sure your generalization about all generalizations is true?

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 19, 2007 23:53 UTC (Wed) by liljencrantz (subscriber, #28458) [Link]

I'm sorry. It's a Heissenjoke. If you comment on it, it is no longer funny.

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 20, 2007 1:50 UTC (Thu) by felixfix (subscriber, #242) [Link]

So if you commented on the comment which disabled the joke, did you thereby re-enable it?  And
am I re-disabling it with this comment?  If this is so, please -- just one more comment will
correct things -- so let the proper person respond ONLY ...

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 20, 2007 15:05 UTC (Thu) by nlucas (subscriber, #33793) [Link]

ping

Insufficiently free?

Posted Dec 20, 2007 15:07 UTC (Thu) by lysse (guest, #3190) [Link]

The proper person couldn't come. Sorry.

The GNU Herds' software distribution tag

Posted Dec 20, 2007 19:46 UTC (Thu) by davi (guest, #18853) [Link]

The GNU Herds' criteria is an outdated draft.

Applying such criteria to some software distributions:

Debian GNU/Linux is Almost-Free Software because it contains Non-Free Software BLOBs in its kernel.
Debian GNU/Hurd is Free Software because it does not ship anything that is Non-Free Software.
Debian GNU/NetBSD is not classified yet.
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD is not classified yet.
Debian is Almost-Free Software. Debian is a general term which refer to Debian GNU/Linux and all Debian ports. The Debian project offers the download of some Non-Free Software packages from its archives and website.
Ubuntu is Partially-Free Software because it is made of many programs; some are free and some are not.
Gobuntu is Almost-Free Software. Although Gobuntu's stated policy is to adhere to the Free Software Foundations four freedoms, it presently installs Firefox, which encourages installing non-free plugins. Gobuntu enables downloading of non-free software packages from its archives, and the use of the ubuntu.com domain promotes non-free software.
gNewSense is Free Software because it does not ship anything that is Non-Free Software neither work to provide easy access to Non-Free Software. A Non-Free Software BLOB not removed from gNewSense is a bug. The gNewSense's policy is to delete any non-free software found in the Linux kernel or elsewhere in the GNU/Linux system.
OpenBSD is Almost-Free Software because although it does not ship anything that is Non-Free Software it provides for easy installation of Non-Free Software through the ports system. Not many packages though: Java and a few others.
FreeBSD and NetBSD are Almost-Free Software because provide for easy installation of some Non-Free Software products through the ports system. Besides both contain Non-Free Software BLOBs in its kernel too.
Mac OS X is tagged as Non-Free Software.
Microsoft Windows Vista is tagged as Non-Free Software.

P.S.: Tags can be modified at any time due to Software Distribution policy change, etc.