[Bug 178162] Review Request: libgeotiff

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 12:31 -0600, Josh Boyer wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 19:13 +0100, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 11:19 -0600, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> > > >>>>> "RC" == Ralf Corsepius <rc040203 at freenet.de> writes:
> > > 
> > > RC> Nobody is talking about changing Fedora. I am talking about adding
> > > RC> another, separate repo, people could add as part of FE (Non-free
> > > RC> Fedora Extras)
> > > 
> > > Well, now you are, but you certainly didn't make that clear.
> > > 
> > > Since you seem to prefer arguing with, well, anyone
> > Actually I am only arguing with one party "Fedora Leadership",
> > on always the same subject  "Their (IMO narrow-minded) notion on
> > OpenSource".
> 
> OpenSource and Free Software are not the same thing. 
Yes, but neither OpenSource nor Free Software are identical to the OSI
definitions, nor are they identical to an individual's notion of "open",
"free" or even "libre" - These all are political labels, which often are
being abused.

>  Ask RMS if you
> don't believe me.  But that is a complete side issue.  Just as your
> assertions of "most users are universities and educational
> institutions..." are.

Well, firstly. this is my personal experience, secondly one thing is a
fact: The majority of OpenSource developers has a university/educational
institution background.

This applies in particular to packages with clearly scientific
background such as gdal and libgeotiff.

> Anyway, what does a "non-free Fedora Extras" repository buy you over
> just using on of the other third party repositories that already cover
> this?  I see no difference at all, other than a blessing from the Fedora
> project which I (personally) don't think it would deserve.
> 
> Seriously, what benefit would it have?
The same as FE has over 3rd party repositories:

Same server infrastructure, build system infrastructure, better package
coordination/less package conflicts (c.f. Axel's complaint on zaptel and
friends), same packaging standards, ...

The downside would be: Probably endless quarrels on "legality", more
bureaucracy and ... "less freedom" :( 

Ralf