Defining Free Software Business

MJ Ray mjr at phonecoop.coop
Sun Jun 25 06:27:03 UTC 2006


Ottavio Caruso <pr0f3ss0r1492 at yahoo.com>
> What about classifying businesses according to the
> Debian guidelines (main, contrib and non-free)?

The guidelines themselves may be a bit harsh for business,
but that's not quite what you meant:

> Businesses that deal with 100% free software (from
> development to production) will fit in the main
> section, the others in either contrib or non free.

Yes, I think that sort of split could be a good idea
(unsurprisingly).  It's already pretty well understood by many
GNU users and it wouldn't hurt to introduce the others to it.

It might even make certain members of this list understand how
non-free is not part of debian's OS and how it can be used
to help get more free software, but I don't hold out hope
of it.  Labelling something as a non-free offering clearly
lets everyone know that it is not wholly free software as far
as we're concerned, even if the business waffles about open
standards, open access or even open/shared source.

But will the FSF's ambivalence towards debian allow us
to use these handy and familiar labels?
-- 
MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
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Also, http://people.debian.org/~mjr/




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