[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: mozilla thunderbird trademark restrictions / still dfsg free ?



Scripsit Brian Masinick <masinick@yahoo.com>

> If they don't like the way we package Thunderbird or any of the
> other packages,

If you'd read the thread you'd have found that the Mozilla people are
quite happy with Debian's packages of their software. The stumbling
block is that they can't promise to also like what any of our users
may arbitrarily do to the packages we distribute.

That is reasonable for their point of view, and an objective appraisal
of the situation may well conclude that it is our adherence to our
principles that will force us to change the names, and not that the
position of Mozilla is particularly disagreeable in isolation. Which,
of course, does not make our principles any less valid.

> I recommend using really generic names for each of the packages,
> then refer to the Mozilla names in the descriptions, such as:

> Debian Web browser based on Mozilla Firefox
> Debian Email client based on Mozilla Thunderbird
> Debian browser suite based on Mozilla

No, no, no. Generic package names are bad, unless they are already
very firmly established. We don't want somebody packaging a
NextStep-native browser as simply "browser", and we equally don't want
a package with Mozilla's browser to be labeled with such blandness
either.

And in particular, we do not want to imply that one of the wide
variety of web browsers or email clients we ship, all packaged using
upstream sources created outside the project, is _the_
Debian-recommended tool of choice for that function.

For my own part, I'm sure thunderbird is a good email client for
people who like it (and do not need to do much of their mail business
through a low-bandwidth ssh connection), but I use mutt and intend to
continue doing that, and I would not at all be amused if our
thunderbird was named in a way that implied that my choice was "less
Debian" than the other.

> I have a hard time believing that after all this time they want people
> to get away from their names, but if that's really what they want, let's
> do it.

Read the thread. _They_ would basically like us to keep using the
names. _We_ do not want to keep their names if it needs to be on a
Debian-specific exception.

-- 
Henning Makholm                                              # good fish ...
                                                    # goodfish, goodfish ...
                                                         # good-good FISH! #



Reply to: