Bug#410061: please move to contrib

[Robert Millan <rmh@aybabtu.com>]

On Sat, Mar 24, 2007 at 10:01:09PM +0000, Rob Andrews wrote:
> On 24-Mar-2007 21:06.39 (GMT), Robert Millan wrote:
>  > > This also allows the usage of free plugins as well.
>  > > Feasibly, ia32-libs' only purpose is to allow the execution of software that
>  > > cannot be recompiled natively. By example, that should also be in contrib.
>  > How many free plugins are out there that don't work on amd64 ?
> 
> Few, but feasibly someone could choose to use an i386 binary of a GPLed
> project with nspluginwrapper.

How feasable is that?  Can you give an example?

Also note that if GPLed plugins that have 64-bit issues, it's more productive
to fix those issues than running them through a wrapper that presumably has
other problems (reportedly, crash conditions).  In the context of a pure DFSG
environment, I see a loss in that rather than a gain (in the sense that it
misleads users into addressing the wrong problems).

(of course, without the context of a pure DFSG env this may no longer apply,
but then we're in contrib land already ;-)).

> What users choose to do with the software is
> not a reflection on the software itself.

We don't consider unfeasible uses of software to stablish main/contrib
separation.  Think of the implications: one could argue that flashplugin-nonfree
belongs in main, because you can copy the script to /dev/random to fill your
entropy pool :-)

I don't claim that nspluginwrapper use in a pure DFSG env is unfeasible, but I
haven't seen anything supporting that, and to me it seems unlikely.

> The area of what software it could run is dependant on how the user chooses
> to use it. As I mentioned, ia32-libs' primary purpose is to run software
> that cannot be recompiled for amd64/ia64. However, it can feasibly both run
> free and non-free software. But it goes into main.

ia32-libs can be useful if you want to run apache in 32-bit mode because this
gives you higher memory efficiency in a performance-critical environment.

> Never the less, if it's decided that nspluginwrapper should go into contrib,
> then into contrib it should go.

I suppose that we're deciding that as we speak :-)

-- 
Robert Millan

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