John Hendrickson wrote: > Why in the world did DMs compile KDE to say: You must use LessTif and > uninstall Motif??? What kde package requires lesstif? I was unable to locate one using 'apt-cache showpkg lesstif1' and 'apt-cache showpkg lesstif2'. Note that lesstif1 and lesstif2 implement versions 1 and 2 of the ABI respectively. But libmotif is up to version 3 at this time. That is probably the source of your problem. There is no equivalent to the version 3 ABI available from lesstif at the moment. > Motif was "here first" and has every right to use "motif" as it's library > name! If lesstif doesn't like motif it can change LessTif's lib names to > lesstif. The Motif library is not free and does not meet the DSFG (Debian Free Software Guidelines). Therefore Debian cannot distribute it in the main Debian archive. Because non-free is not part of Debian the Motif library is also not part of Debian. There can be no Debian software in main that depends upon that library. However the library is available to users in the non-free section of the depot. The Lesstif library was written from scratch with the goal to produce a free software replacement for the Motif library which is not free. This is not Debian specific. This was developed to meet the general need for a free Motif compatible library outside of Debian. But Debian does package and distributes it. It is really that one or none because there is no other alternative that is free software. This has nothing to do about the name of the library. Clearly Motif was there first. Lesstif is a joke on that name. The goal was to produce a free version of the library and through versions 1 and 2 this works. But they are lagging behind with version 3. Such is the nature of volunteer projects. > As far as Debian trying to force Motif out of the market and prop up > LessTif in it's place by making it disfunctional? It's an insult to all > unix users. I think most unix users understand that any group that has "open" in their name is rarely really open. The OpenGroup controls the Motif copyright and has been slow and opening up the source to it. If you feel so motivated you might contact them and check on the status of freeing up the copyright on the the Motif library. > I see clear patterns of favoritism developing and I dont' like it. There is a clear pattern of favoritism for free software. So much so that Debian voted to change the Social Contract to say "Debian will remain 100% free". Because Motif is not free software it cannot be part of Debian under the current DSFG. The Social Contract also says "We will not object to non-free works that are intended to be used on Debian systems". Bob
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