On encouraging Macromedia & others to supply repos for Fedora

[David Nielsen]

fre, 20 10 2006 kl. 04:17 -0400, skrev Benjy Grogan:
> On 10/20/06, David Nielsen <david at lovesunix.net> wrote:
> > fre, 20 10 2006 kl. 02:31 -0400, skrev Benjy Grogan:
> > > When I installed the flash-plugin during FC5 first days out of the
> > > womb it was a one shot deal.  I used the Macromedia repo that Warren
> > > Togami announced <http://lwn.net/Articles/176376/> and was
> > > automatically offered all security updates that followed.  Will Fedora
> > > re-announce that deal with FC6, and are there any other repo deals in
> > > the making with other ISVs?  Google, Skype, and Sun Microsystems would
> > > be good candidates.  I wouldn't mind being offered Google Earth and
> > > Picasa updates as they come about.
> >
> > I find it rather unfortunate given the official stance on proprietary
> > software that Warren elects to use the fedora announce mailing list to
> > announce what it likely a personal project he runs in his sparetime with
> > no relation to the Fedora Project. It muddies up the clarity of our
> > stance to users like yourself.
> 
> If the repo exists then it's great that Mr. Togami is informing the
> Fedora community.  It's clear that Fedora is ardently pro-FOSS but
> there is nothing illegal about proprietary software so I don't see why
> it's mention should be taboo.  In the case of providing a repo to
> Sun's Java there could be some tension considering all the hardwork
> going into GCJ.  I think it strengthens Fedora because these
> proprietaries entities are then integrating more into the open source
> framework where yum repositories are used.

I was mainly complaining about his choice of announcement channel, using
his status and the Fedora projects official announcement lists does give
people like yourself the idea to ask questions like:

"Will we be making more deals like this" when the Fedora project clear
has no such deal nor can it due to it's pure FLOSS guidelines.

Warren should know better, as should you for that matter, you clearly
understand that there's a reason for the stance we take, thus please
don't assume that we have in the past or will in the future compromise
that stance to provide officially supported repos of proprietary
software.

No it's not illegal, but we have standards and any attempt to package up
such software for the Fedora platform should be kept well clear of the
official Fedora project so not to confuse people like yourself into
asking questions which answer themselves.. 

No, there will be no deals between e.g. Skype and Fedora unless it
involves their code under an OSI approved license.

- David Nielsen
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