Re: 3-clause BSD with additional disclaimers
On Sat, 2006-10-28 at 18:14 +0200, Francesco Poli wrote:
> Hi all! :)
>
> I filed a RFP wishlist bug about a very interesting scientific/technical
> data visualizer called VisIt (see bug #395573 [1]).
>
> Its license is a 3-clause BSD license with some additional disclaimers;
> it can be read here[2] and is fully quoted below for future reference.
> IMO, this license is fine for Debian main.
> Anyway, while I wait that someone gets interested (perhaps by visiting
> its website[3]) and volunteers to package this program, I wanted to
> check that the additional disclaimers really do not cause any problems.
> Hence, here I am to ask whether anyone sees any problems with this
> license...
>
> [1] http://bugs.debian.org/395573
> [2] http://www.llnl.gov/visit/license.html
> [3] http://www.llnl.gov/visit/
>
Wowzaz :) http://www.llnl.gov/visit/screens.html is really worth a look.
I've got a long running project of charting anthropometrical signalment
data related to behavior patterns and I will be trying it.
My concerns aren't really legal .. What I'm worried about is creating
disappointment in the software from botched installs.
I'm not so sure this will lend well to conventional "single" packaging.
Most people working on projects serious enough to be interested in it
would (likely) be working on parallel processing architecture.
http://www.llnl.gov/visit/FAQ.html#10 suggests some things that I think
are a bit out of aptitude's capabilities. Not that aptitude could not do
it, but it would get .. interesting :) I think it may end up deterring
people from the software because it didn't work correctly after
installing (on any platform.) Look here:
http://www.llnl.gov/visit/FAQ.html#6
I'd be a little worried (again) that [binary] packaging it would end up
giving it a bad rep. Scripting this would be a challenge.
Source packages however, would be nice.. and the license looks fine for
that.
I'm going to play with it shortly and see how it goes .. and relay more
feedback. Its far better than the rendering engines I've been using (a
hodge podge I won't even bother explaining here).
While I won't volunteer to package it, I will make every effort next
week to throw together a parallel knoppix cluster and give it a try.
This hinges on me convincing my wife that we need even more old
computers sucking up electricity for something that has no hope of
generating money .. I think that will be harder than installing :)
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