Re: Ballot option: Debian is created by humans

Hi,

On Thu, Aug 13, 2026 at 12:40:07PM +0200, Gard Spreemann wrote:
>Could you explain a bit what the backstory here is, for those of us who
>haven't been around that long?

https://www.debian.org/vote/2004/vote_003

Back in 2004, we voted on something that was harmlessly titled 
"Editorial amendments to the social contract" and sounded like it would 
make very much sense, clarifying things without making big changes ot 
the status quo.

The GR had just two options and was given the nod with a 174:39 result.

But it wasn't harmless at all. It extended the DFSG that applied to 
software only before to everything that was part of Debian. Hours after 
the result was published, people who value a non-running OS that is 
absolutely free more than a pragmatic approach by keeping the software 
running opened bottles of champaign and began efforts to get evil things 
like RFC texts and non-free firmware that was already needed back then 
to run unimportant pieces of hardware like mainstream Wifi interfaces 
from Deban proper.

The resulting avalanche of suddenly RC-buggy packages delayed the 
release of Debian sarge for about a year, caused huge friction inside 
the project and brought us the non-free firmware discussion that 
negatively influenced our software quality and ease of installation for 
20 years before we finally started making sense again.

Ubuntu had its first release half a year after that GR and was able to 
pull a significant number of our users away from us in the following 
years, due to their running everywhere and us not releasing sarge.

Since then, I always read all of the fine print of every GR that is 
proposed, examining it carefully for hidden bombs like that one. This 
will also be the reason why I will vote most of the ballot options below 
NOTA this time.

Once bitten, twice shy.

Greetings,
your grumpy old grey-haired man

P.S.: All hallucinations, sarcasm, cynism and frustration in this 
message are all mine