On Wed, Jul 17, 2002 at 04:23:58PM -0500, Steve Langasek wrote:

> I never claimed to have a monopoly on the word "free".  I used the term
> "Free Software", which is much more specific and has a specific meaning
> to the community in which the term originated.
...
> That this discussion is being entertained at all
> surely indicates that at least someone with a say in the matter believes
> freeness -- or at least widespread distribution -- is important to
> LaTeX.

There you are -- you _do_ consider you have been granted
the True Meaning of "freeness".

Can't you understand that all LaTeX users I've ever met -- and I've met many --
consider that LaTeX IS (already) FREE.

You seem to believe that Frank Mittelbach is looking for
some kind of papal blessing from Debian.
As far as I can see, Frank --
who is largely responsible for the extraordinarily high quality of LaTeX today --
is sad to see a schism in the world of free software (TM RS),
and is doing his best to bridge the gap.

In my opinion he is rather innocent;
he has about as much chance of reaching agreement with Debian
as I have of reaching an understanding with the Orange Order.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
tel: 086-233 6090
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland