How Debian handles it [LWN.net]

How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 29, 2008 14:57 UTC (Mon) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625)
Parent article: openSUSE and the distribution of proprietary software

Debian does distribute proprietary software, but it tells you what it's doing.

On Debian, I can run "vrms" to see what proprietary stuff if any I have installed, then remove it with the package manager and edit /etc/apt/sources.list and remove the "non-free" repository. From then on, the system policy prevents the package manager from installing anything with a questionable license.

It's probably not a big deal for a home machine, but if you're going to deploy it for work, or build an embedded system or "virtual appliance" based on it, the Debian way offers peace of mind. No more "oops, I didn't know Example.com ImprisonDmitryWare was on there!"

The big question needs to be: is there a configuration change that you can make that will prevent the system from installing proprietary software behind your back?

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How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 29, 2008 15:41 UTC (Mon) by ceplm (subscriber, #41334) [Link]

I am not user of Debian (anymore), but non-free packages are very clearly differentiated not only by (quite opaque, true) vrms, but also by being in the separate branch of repostiroy. Eliminate non-free word from /etc/apt/sources.list and you won't get any of them.

How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 30, 2008 14:19 UTC (Tue) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

Indeed, non-free is not even included in a default installation. The user has to go out of his/her way to enable it; a tricky feat given that it's not mentioned in any obviously documented place as far as I can tell!

How Debian handles it

Posted Oct 9, 2008 21:37 UTC (Thu) by anton (subscriber, #25547) [Link]

[...] it's not mentioned in any obviously documented place as far as I can tell!

A number of packages recommend or suggest their documentation (which is good), and then I find that apt-get doesn't know about this package, so I google for, e.g. "debian package make-doc" and there it says "[non-free]" in big letters. And if I actually want to have documentation for pretty important packages, I have to put "non-free" in my sources.list, even if I don't want any software that the real RMS considers non-free. And I am worried that some proprietary software might slip in through this open door. I would appreciate it if Debian did not just throw anything thats not DFSG-compliant into one common "non-free" section. At least now I can check with vrms:

               Non-free packages installed on smaug

emacs21-common-non-dfsg   GNU Emacs shared, architecture independent, non-DFSG i
gawk-doc                  Documentation for GNU awk
gcc-4.1-doc               documentation for the GNU compilers (gcc, gobjc, g++)
gcc-doc-base              several GNU manual pages
glibc-doc-reference       GNU C Library: Documentation
make-doc                  Documentation for the GNU version of the "make" utilit

  6 non-free packages, 0.6% of 1033 installed packages.

Only GNU stuff. Good.

How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 29, 2008 20:54 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

That is indeed the reason for the name :)

"VRMS"

Posted Oct 1, 2008 10:58 UTC (Wed) by nettings (subscriber, #429) [Link]

brilliant :-D

if you're a non-debian user like me, here's some background: http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Debian/2005-12/m...

How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 30, 2008 10:21 UTC (Tue) by michl (subscriber, #35061) [Link]

The big question needs to be: is there a configuration change that you can make that will prevent the system from installing proprietary software behind your back?

Yes, the proprietary software would just be offered by default. The installation itself will need an ok, uncheck or similar.

How Debian handles it

Posted Sep 30, 2008 21:50 UTC (Tue) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203) [Link]

> On Debian, I can run "vrms" to see what proprietary stuff if any
> I have installed...

That tool isn't good enough. Here is what vrms says about one of my machines:

jester:~# vrms
No non-free packages installed on jester! rms would be proud.

One little problem... jester is a fully functional MythTV front and backend. It can rip and play DVDs, play video and music in a multitude of patented formats, etc. RMS would not be proud of that machine.