RE: [seul-edu] ISO evals

["Darryl Palmer" <Darryl_Palmer_Jr@acm.org>]

I am not talking about us never having software that is non-free on the
ISO CD, I am saying that we should not have non-free software on THIS
ISO CD.  Any software that is non-free or has a strange license
agreement that doesn't allow unlimited distribution and modification is
a problem.  It is easier for all software that falls in this category to
be conditionally added to the ISO rather than all of non-free software
being on the CD and we conditionally remove the ones that cause us
problems.  Any license agreement that is not-free will have to be
examined carefully to determine what its impact will be on the CD
distribution, Internet download, 3rd party distribution, and custom
modifications for Linux distribution and/or FHS compliance.

Java2 applications will make PhaseIV more challenging.  By removing them
now it will be easier.

I thought one of the goals was to have something for Doug and other
SEUL/edu people to hand out at the NECC conference this year.  The
conference is 12 weeks from Monday and if we need a lead time of a week
or two for CD production, we have only 10 weeks to not only perform
Phase 3, but also Phase 4.  If handing out CDs at NECC this year is not
necessary or not practical, then there is no problem if we extend this
ISO project for the rest of year.

Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-seul-edu@seul.org [mailto:owner-seul-edu@seul.org] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Matthews
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 7:39 AM
To: seul-edu@seul.org
Subject: RE: [seul-edu] ISO evals

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Darryl Palmer
> Sent: 02 April 2003 14:21
> 
> If we take this stand, we may have to take it for everything.  If it
> requires Java 2, then it is out, if it has a non-commercial license,
> then it is also out.  This will eliminate most of the Java apps, and
> eliminate other applications such as GAP and xephem.

Isn't Java2 allowed in non-free?

Even if not, what's to stop apps targetted at J2 being included in
the edu equivalent of contrib, and a dummy J2 installer package
being included?

Tell me if I'm totally off-base here ... 

> The plus side is that anyone who is not familiar with educational
> software for Linux will not know that they are only getting 70 free
apps
> versus the 100+ free/non-free apps that we had originally.

If there's redundancy there, then it's not so much of an issue.  If any
of
the 30 removed apps are unique (or have unique functionality somewhere
within them), then I'd argue that it's worth investigating options
further.

> Darryl

  jc