Ottavio Caruso pr0f3ss0r1492@yahoo.com
What about classifying businesses according to the Debian guidelines (main, contrib and non-free)?
The guidelines themselves may be a bit harsh for business, but that's not quite what you meant:
Businesses that deal with 100% free software (from development to production) will fit in the main section, the others in either contrib or non free.
Yes, I think that sort of split could be a good idea (unsurprisingly). It's already pretty well understood by many GNU users and it wouldn't hurt to introduce the others to it.
It might even make certain members of this list understand how non-free is not part of debian's OS and how it can be used to help get more free software, but I don't hold out hope of it. Labelling something as a non-free offering clearly lets everyone know that it is not wholly free software as far as we're concerned, even if the business waffles about open standards, open access or even open/shared source.
But will the FSF's ambivalence towards debian allow us to use these handy and familiar labels?