Editorial Tone [LWN.net]

Editorial Tone

Posted Apr 29, 2004 10:46 UTC (Thu) by modernjazz (subscriber, #4185)
In reply to: Editorial Tone by Ross
Parent article: Debian: too free?

An important function of journalism is to force a
community to face awkward and unpleasant facts. A
statement like

"In the longer term, Debian is going to have to come to a
conclusion about where its priorities truly lie"

is simply the bald-faced truth. The many different
reasons for running Debian cannot coexist under one roof
if there are members of that community who insist on
restricting that roof to only a portion of the
house. Perhaps the roof has to be bigger, or the house
smaller, but either way a decision must be made.

Personally, I'd like to see Debian much more tolerant of
"impure" components---after all, the hardware it runs on
is not free. But the proper resolution is a matter for
debate. Rest assured, however, that as a current Debian
advocate I will be watching this debate with great
interest.

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Editorial Tone

Posted Apr 29, 2004 21:12 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

Yes, I agree. I don't mind such things being pointed out because we are all better off knowing about them. I was responding to a portion of the article which I thought was part of the editorial but was really a quote for one of the positions. I was afraid I was seeing the LWN editorial used to call a large number Debian developers "fanatics", "Holier Than Stallman", and their beliefs "insanity". I should have known better.