Re: free vs. non-free debate

[Stein Gjoen <srgjoen@online.no>]

Guylhem Aznar wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Nov 02, 1999 at 06:26:41PM +0000, cogNiTioN wrote:
> > I feel that the Linux Documentation Project has a responsibility to
> > document Linux, as much of it as possible. Otherwise rename it the GNU
> > doc. project, or something.
> 
> The GNU project provided most of what's now used in GNU/Linux operating
> system.

I'd like to see that documented. Last time I saw it attempted
(sorry, lost the source) FSF-held GNU copyrighted software made
up much less than 50 percent of a typical Linux distribution.
By "GNU project" I assume you mean parts of the official GNU,
not things covered by the GNU copyright license.

> However, since a clear majority wants documentation for non-free
> software, what about links in a separate section, as Scot Wilcoxon
> suggested, to separate free and non-free?

I strongly disagree here. Alrady it is hard as it is to make
users fid the LDP documentation; spreading it out between
free, non-free and oither categories makes this a mess.

Now looking at what may be considered less than utterly open:
- 3Dfx HOWTO		commercial hardware
- AI-Alife HOWTO	some commercial products mentioned
- Alpha HOWTO		commercial hardware
- PalmOS HOWTO		comercial OS
- WordPerfect mini-HOWTO	comercial
 ...and more.

I cannot see much of a problem here, and if Microsoft decided
to write a HOWTO for WfL I would not reject it out of hand. We
should be rational about this and keep the end user needs in
mind.

Regards,
   Stein Gjoen

(Oh yes, I do mention some comercial products in my Multi Disk
HOWTO too. Tsk tsk)


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