Re: How about creating addons.gnome.org

[Philip Van Hoof <spam pvanhoof be>]

On Fri, 2010-08-13 at 19:33 -0400, Richard Stallman wrote:
> It's not really a question of morality, how would we prevent a user
>     from installing both a GPL and a non-OSI plugin for Tomboy at the same
>     time?
> 
> As someone already pointed out, we don't aim to _stop_ users from
> installing whatever they wish.  The question at hand is what we
> _suggest_ to users.  We should not steer users towards nonfree
> programs.
> 
> What counts is whether the addon is free or nonfree.  (See the
> definition in http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.)  The OSI
> has a different criterion, called "open source".  It really is different;
> not all open source programs are free.  In the GNU Project, we don't
> follow the OSI; we insist on free programs.


But then again, that's the GNU project. GNOME, however, has different
guidelines:

http://live.gnome.org/ReleasePlanning/ModuleProposing 

        Free-ness: Apps must be under a Free or Open license and support
        open standards and protocols. In case of doubt about the module
        license, send an email to the Release Team and the desktop-devel
        mailing list. Support of proprietary protocols and closed
        standards is part of the world we live in, but all applications
        that support closed protocols should also support open
        equivalents where those exist, and should default to those if at
        all possible while still serving their intended purpose.

You can see that these guidelines clarify that the license must either
be free OR open (BOTH are permitted).

I bet this guideline had a good reason to come into existence. So let's
stick to it. Whatever GNU's guideline is.


Cheers,

Philip


-- 


Philip Van Hoof
freelance software developer
Codeminded BVBA - http://codeminded.be