Slashdot: Ian Murdock Answers | Linux Today

Slashdot: Ian Murdock Answers

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Jul 27, 2000

Here are the answers to the questions we asked Ian Murdock,
original Debian instigator and current President/CEO of Progeny
Linx Systems….

“What do you think about the current political problems with KDE
in debian, the possible removal of non-free, and any other
‘political’ issues you care to comment on?”

“I tend to be more interested in technical rather than political
issues, so to be perfectly honest, I don’t have too many opinions
to share with you. One thing I can say about the non-free removal
debate is that many are arguing that changing the social contract
would be akin to changing the founding principles of Debian, which
isn’t entirely true. The social contract came along well into
Debian’s lifetime. It captures a set of principles that evolved
over time, and is really a snapshot of that set of principles taken
at the time it was written. Perhaps it’s time to evolve further.
Perhaps it isn’t. I’ll leave that question to the Debian
folks.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.