Re: KDE

[Kenneth Scharf <scharkalvin@yahoo.com>]

I have been following the thread on moving contrib and non-free.  It
seems to me that some thought might be necessary in the case of
contrib.  Packages such as LyX that are provided with source and all
rights to copy and distribute, but happen to require a non-free
library to link with should still be considered as free, and maybe
even could be included in main.  In LyX's case it requires the XForms
library which is clearly non-free since it is only available in binary
form.  However the authors of LyX are quite clear on their home page
that the important considerations of the GPL DO apply to LyX, LyX IS A
FREE WORK.  Now if a free clone of XForms existed, then there would be
no question that LyX belonged in main.  What about packages that
require Motif to link against.  Because lesstiff exist's these
packages can be free.  They would have to go into contrib (by the
current rules) if there was no lesstiff. For now a staticly linked LyX
is not free, but a dynamicly linked one is (but is useless without the
non-free lib.) Maybe someday someone will write a wrapper around gtk
to provide a free clone of XForms which would free LyX?  The source
for LyX probably belongs in the main section, as it IS free (maybe
useless by itself, but free non the less).  

My opinion... put all free binaries and dynamicly linked 'contribs'
into main.  Put all staticly linked contrib binaries into non-free. 
Eliminate contrib.  Flag the problem binaries somehow. Put ALL free
source in main.  And gently pressure all writers of 'free' software
that require non-free libs to switch libs (or write free clone libs. 
Bravo Lesstiff!)  
==
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