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On 2020.05.01 07:11, Alec Warner wrote: |
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> Hi, |
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> |
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> Consider a case where we have a piece of software and its open source. |
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> The |
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> open source software has various plugins, some of which look useful |
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> and we |
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> may wish to deploy them for Gentoo. However, we must consider the |
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> social |
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> contract, hence this discussion. |
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> |
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> Can we use the plugins if: |
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> (1) They are closed source (e.g. upstream provides binaries only with |
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> a |
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> restricted non-free license.) |
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> (2) They are free software (e.g. FSF / OSI approved license) but they |
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> cost |
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> money. |
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> (b) A subset, its free software and it costs money but it is free |
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> for |
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> open source communities to use. |
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> (3) They are open source, but not free (e.g. they have some kind of |
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> open |
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> license but are not FSF / OSI approved.) |
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> (4) They are open source (and free), but we have chosen to use the |
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> built |
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> plugins (rather than building from source) for the sake of time and |
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> convenience. |
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> |
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> Which are allowed, and which are not? |
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> |
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> -A |
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> |
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|
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Alec, |
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The key word is "depend" and in UK English, it has a different meaning |
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than "use". It may be different again in American. |
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Think of "depend" as being essential to Gentoo in some way and "use" |
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as being a convenience, that would have little or no effect if were removed. |
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It follows, for example, that Gentoo can "use" MS Windows but not |
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"depend" upon it. |
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A more realistic example is github. Its a convenience, set up as a mirror. |
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The master repo is not on github, so if it went away, we would lose that |
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path for user contributions but several others already exist. Thus, |
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Gentoo does not "depend" on github. |
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Thinking back to to github mirror several devs were not happy about it. |
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My view is that "use" only applies if there are live, maintained and |
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exercised alternatives in place. If Gentoo was impacted while an |
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alternative was put in place, that falls under "depend". |
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|
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-- |
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Regards, |
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|
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Roy Bamford |
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(Neddyseagoon) a member of |
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elections |
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gentoo-ops |
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forum-mods |
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arm64 |
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