Re: Moving contrib and non-free of master.debian.org
On Tue, Jun 22, 1999 at 02:10:59PM -0700, Darren O. Benham wrote:
> > - a message when installing the package
> Nagware-ish. Every non-free package you install, you have to agree to some
> announcement that this package is non free...
I concur, however it's the lesser of a lot of possible evils. See below.
> > - something that shows up clearly in dselect/apt
> (this applys to above, too) doesnt' help the distinction for people
> browsing http or ftp directories...
People browsing http or ftp directories will see the directory names and the
.message files.
It's the people using tools such as apt-get in which the user doesn't often
see the word 'non-free' that I feel this proposal originally concerned.
> > And perhaps, the README.Debian should be mandatory to contain a brief
> > explanation why this package is considered non-free (often it is obvious,
> > but often it is not, especially for those new to the world of free software)
> I think this is a good idea, regardless of what we do with the archive...
> it's a -policy issue.
I agree with this as well, however there are people like Manoj among us who
consider this giving out legal advice.
> > Many of the users do get Debian on CD, so they won't even realize which
> > server the packages were on. Also, putting an additional server in your
> > apt-file is a one time action, while a sign on every package (however it
> > would look) would be recognized at every installation.
> putting an additional like would be like saying "I wish to use non-free
> software" That covers teh anser to each question. It's a chance to make a
> consious decision by the user. They see the free stuff. They're told that
> non-free stuff exists if they check this other server or add this line to
> their source.list file.
The packaging tools already know when something is non-free - it has the
Section: non-free/* in the package's control file. Thus there is no need to
modify any packages to let the user know that a package is non-free.
Here's an idea:
# apt-get install navigator-smotif-46
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
netscape-base-46 navigator-base-46
The following NEW packages will be installed:
navigator-smotif-46 netscape-base-46 navigator-base-46
The following NON-FREE packages will be installed:
navigator-smotif-46 netscape-base-46 navigator-base-46
0 packages upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
gnome-apt could just put a little Mr. Yuck (ooh, there's an icon we haven't
seen in a while :) sticker by all the non-free packages right next to the
package name.
Unintrusive, non-alienating, but lets the user know.
--
Robert Woodcock - rcw@debian.org
"Yes I do believe there is a violent thing inside of me" -- Everclear
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