[wellylug] Distrowatch: the big 3 compared (SUSE/Fedora/Mandrake)

[Damon Lynch]

On Sat, 2004-06-19 at 16:41, Jamie Baddeley wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-06-19 at 15:13, Wood Brent wrote:
> > Do the above untainted distro's avoid including any tainted code from evil
> > commercial organisations who sell their software?
> > 
> Yes. By default Debian does not install the non-free branch - which
> contains many of the packages that contain licensing challenges. Of
> course the user is able to add the non-free branch, but this is their
> decision - not the distributions.
> 
> So, in answer to your question - yes. Well at least for Debian anyway.
> 

This is confusing "free" as in GNU freedom and "commercial organisations
who sell their software".  

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#TOCCommercial

As RMS says there, please don't use "commercial" as a synonym for
"non-free." That confuses two entirely different issues.

I am happy to buy GNU/Linux from either a non-profit or a for-profit
organisation.  The core ideal remains: freedom to exchange and modify
the software.  There is nothing wrong with a company that rewards its
workers making a profit that is fair.  It is greed that is the root
problem.

Damon