AppStream Ideas and Thoughts

[Éric Araujo]

> Interesting... So this is a social issue: You need to trust someone.
Exactly.  I read one great blog post once that explained that the value
of Debian is not the great tools like dpkg and apt, but its social
contract.  Good tools are a side effect of the social contract.

> But if you trust Debian, which does great in spreading the idea of free
> software, why won't you trust developer X, who is e.g. also a DD and
> free-software enthusiast?
That person wouldn’t be a DD without Debian, so this is one more example
of the usefulness of distributions / OS projects :)  Circularity aside,
it’s easier to trust one process that involves many eyeballs than
trusting a number of individuals.

> Also, is it freedom to be limited to the stuff your platform (Debian)
> provides?
You’re going onto the slippery slope that uses more that one sense of
“freedom” to derail the discussion, or misleads the debate by speaking
about “freedom of choice”.  See
http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html

In my messages, I was speaking only about free software, software that
provides the well-known four freedoms.  See the FSF definition or the DFSG.

Regards