On Thu, Mar 11, 1999 at 11:38:15PM -0500, Steve Willer wrote: > > > It's relatively painless to implement and doesn't add any significant > > > inconvenience to the user. It also makes the point. Doesn't it? > > > > "vrms"? > > Virtual RMS. It's a .deb, part of the standard dist (at least on potato). > It tells you about all of the packages that are non-free. It runs on the > command line, but the package also installs it as a monthly cron job by > default. Sounds obnoxious and otherwise generally annoying most of the time. Appropriately named I think. ;> > I've been thinking about this, and it definitely has some appeal. It > doesn't limit the user's choices, and it might actually educate them. You > could even take it a step further and require non-free .debs to have a > field in them that describes *why* the package is "non-free" (patent > restrictions, license doesn't allow modified distribution of modified > binaries, etc.). Then vrms could list this information along with the > package. This has been discussed and shot down. If we start telling other people why things aren't free software we open ourselves to lausuits and other nastiness. -- Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> Debian GNU/Linux developer PGP: E8D68481E3A8BB77 8EE22996C9445FBE The Source Comes First! To boldly go where no bunch of geeks have gone before :) --Joel Klecker
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