Re: Xfree86 4.4 vs Xorg Wrap-up
In gmane.linux.debian.devel.x Francois Isabelle <isabellf@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Is that what's happening ?
> 1 - XFree86 changed licensing, which introduced some GPL compatibility
> issues and some deviations to debian DFSG(debian free software
> guidelines).
Yes.
> 2 - Some are arguing that the new licensing is NOT GPL incompatible, but
> nobody argues that it is not deviating from DFSG
I do not understand that. There is a consensus that the new license is GPL
incomatible. Whether it is DFSG free is not complety clear.
> 3 - Xorg forked XFree86 due to these licensing considerations
Yes.
> 4 - Debian will NOT include XFree86 4.4 components
Yes.
> 5 - Other Linux's distributions MIGTH include Xfree86 4.4
Afaik none of the major players (Suse, Redhat/Fedora, Gentoo, Mandrake,
Debian) will. (openBSD won't either.)
> 6 - Other Linux's distributions WILL include Xorg
It looks like Fedora will.
> 7 - Debian MIGHT include Xorg, MIGHT include XFree86 4.4 in non-free or
> similar
I doubt anybody will invest work to package XFree86 4.4 for Debian with
the current license, I would be very surprised if any of the members of
the current maintainer team would.
There is another alternative to XFree86 - the Xserver from
freedesktop.org. <http://freedesktop.org/Software/xserver>. Afaik it has
not yet been decided which of these Debian will choose but I think
there is tendency towards freedesktop.org. - It is saner from a
packager's POV, they have split X in components (server and libraries)
which could ease maintainance a lot.
Be aware that I am not part of the Debian X-Strike force and do not
speak ex cathedra.
cu andreas
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