DISCUSSION: Why Is Debian So Political?

rickh · 10-03-2006, 01:15 PM

This thread is to discuss the article titled:
Why Is Debian So Political?

Quote:

Debian is often held up as an example of a too political Linux community, by people who toss it off as a pejorative without considering just why it is so. In fairness, I decided to provide an explanation of the circumstances that encourage that politcal activity. I hope that seen in this light, Debian politics can be shown for what it is; the glue that holds this community together, and the reason that Debian continues to be the standard of mature Linux distributions.
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Politics Generally The subject of political infringements into Linux comes up every so often, and generates the same kind of heated exchanges that political discussions of any nature are known to do. Politics and religion are often recognized as taboo subjects in delicate company, but they are nearly impossible to avoid.

cfmcguire · 10-04-2006, 07:45 PM

Anytime that two or more people are engaged in any sort of endeavor, politics is inevitable. The significant difference that I percieve here is that the discussion is public, another sign of an open society.

vharishankar · 10-05-2006, 01:39 AM

Great article.

You said everything I wanted to say and with great choice of words.

russofris · 10-05-2006, 04:44 AM

For Debian, being composed of free software is a duty, and not just a political decision. In the world of linux distros, there needs to be 'at least' one distro that is composed entirely of free software. If a user wants to work on Debian, but requires an encumbered package, they are free to install it themselves or use a derivative distro (like Unbuntu).

Gentoo is in the same boat. Difficult 'from scratch' installations, dependency bugs, and errors caused by bleeding edge software aren't Gentoo's problem, they're Gentoo's duty. Gentoo detects bugs and dependency issues "before" they make it into other distros. Bugs are reported upstream or fixed in place with patches going upstream so that RHEL users can blab to gentoo users about how stable 'their' distro is. All I can say to them is "You're welcome".

Thank you Debian developers. You make sure that free software is properly supported, integrated, and available. Even though I don't use your OS, your contribution is (indirectly) felt by each and every linux user in the world.

Thank you for your time,
Frank Russo