Re: Corel's apt frontend
On Oct 30, Bruce Perens wrote:
> From: Raul Miller <moth@debian.org>
> > Sure, but a frontend isn't mere aggregation -- in this case if you take
> > out the GPLed part of the system, the performance of that front end
> > can't happen.
>
> Well, I'd like the law to agree with you, actually. The problem is that
> copyright law does not consider _reference_ a form of derivation. This would
> give us problem with dynamic libraries, too, except that the headers get
> copied into the application.
I suspect a blanket prohibition on reference by non-GPL'ed software
would be incredibly dumb, even if it were permitted by copyright law.
It would forbid anything non-free from operating as a shell (and would
even prohibit KDE programs from launching GNU software). Not to
mention that it'd be impossible to launch GNU software on a non-GNU
system, or even boot a GNU system in the first place (as the boot
sector is referenced by a non-free BIOS or other boot rom).
I really can't even see the point of forbidding non-free programs from
calling dpkg... either (a) they'll reimplement dpkg as non-free
software (reimplementing dpkg might be a good idea in and of itself,
but a non-free dpkg is pretty worthless to everyone, and probably a
source of confusion to boot) or (b) adopt another package manager.
(In any event, you're talking about double-indirection here; I assume
apt's authors don't give a rat's ass who calls their program, and apt
is the program that runs dpkg.)
Chris
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