On Thu, Dec 06, 2018 at 09:38:43PM -0500, Julie Marchant wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256
On 12/06/2018 01:39 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote: the RYF Criteria are extremely specific: it's not enough to have a non-free section that's "disabled", it must be *not possible* for an average end-user to *accidentally* end up installing non-free software by complete accident such as "running a GUI and arbitrarily clicking random buttons".
the absolute worst-case is where an inexperienced end-user, running e.g. synaptics, goes "i have no idea what this does, i'm just gonna click it" and it happens to enable the "non-free" section, happens to silently and happily perform an apt-get update, and wow, suddenly there's binary firmware available... all WITHOUT warning the user of the consequences.
[...]
Just a note, the only way to add the non-free section in Debian involves typing the word "non-free" into a particular spot on a text file, or if using the GUI interface, to edit the entry for the Debian repo to type "non-free" into the "Components" textbox in the "Edit Source" dialog box. So it's not really possible to accidentally enable the non-free repository. I honestly tend to disagree with the FSF's classification of Debian for this reason.
I have just checked synaptics on my Debian stable Laptop with only main repos enabled and could not find a button to enable non-free with just one (or a few) clicks.
But according to the points here: https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.en.html
there are other concerns besides "number of clicks" and "accidents of Joe Average Enduser". So in the foreseeable future FSF endorsement of Debian is unlikely.
Has anyone on this list attended: https://www.fsf.org/events/molly-deblanc-john-sullivan-20180803-hsinchucity-...
The user group of the first (crowd supply) computer cards will split into subgroups running the distributions mentioned in the campaign rewards (Debian, Devuan, Parabola, Fedora). Some will try to stay as close to the vanilla state of a fresh install. Some will use a state working with linux-sunxi-kernel (as previously discussed on this list). I think we can expect a lot of diversity. I am going to be in the Debian group.
That being said, it's the FSF's rules, so Parabola is the only real option regardless of what one might think of the FSF's classification.
I agree.
kind regards Pablo