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Re: Future of X packages in Debian



On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 07:42:24AM -0500, Chris Cheney wrote:
> > * Should we go our own way starting from the "sanitized" XFree86 CVS
> >   snapshot we've prepared?
> 
> I don't see much point in doing this again since other people have
> already done this in the past, right? And if we don't use one of the two
> main X trees that would end up putting a lot more work on XSF's
> shoulders to track patches.

The advantage to this is that we know where the code came from with that
tree.  Several times, possible issues with XFree86 license contamination
have been raised with the X.Org folks, and no concrete action has been
taken.

Let me mitigate that complaint by observing:
1) Maybe no one is sure whose bailiwick it is;
2) Most of the X.Org/freedesktop.org folks aren't as psychotically
   meticulous about license issues as I am;
3) Figuring out which license goes with which commits to XFree86 CVS is
   major challenge given the shifting sands of XFree86's own
   represenatations on the subject.  For example, as I have pointed out
   elsewhere[1], David Dawes of XFree86 has asserted that the new
   XFree86 license can attach to a file without any evidence of that
   fact being in the entire source tree (or even in the CVS commit
   message, which wouldn't suffice anyway).

I am pretty confident this particular problem of contamination will be
straightened out.  I just don't know when.

> We could go with multiple implementations of the xserver and just use
> the FreeDesktop.Org xlibs if wanted, that should cut down on a lot of
> the work since you would only be duplicating the xserver. However, if
> FreeDesktop.Org's xserver really does include the equivalent of the
> X.Org xserver there may be little point in having multiple xservers in
> the archive.

It does not, and it may be quite some time before it does.

Given the proliferation of X servers we're seeing, I'm glad Discover 2.x
is around.

Thanks for your feedback!

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-x/2004/05/msg00209.html

-- 
G. Branden Robinson                |    For every credibility gap, there is
Debian GNU/Linux                   |    a gullibility fill.
branden@debian.org                 |    -- Richard Clopton
http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |

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