On Mon, May 09, 2016 at 08:50:25PM +0200, Holger Wansing wrote: > Hi, > > Andrzej Bylicki <[email protected]> wrote: > > Per notable examples, I would also mention the broadcom-sta driver > > (non-free, but available as source code, pulled from upstream [Broadcom]) > > and the Adobe Flash plugin (non-free and only available as binary 'blob', > > pulled from upstream [Adobe]). > > > > Broadcom wireless adapters are popular and Flash is still being used in > > combination with Firefox/Iceweasel. > > > > Would those be OK? > > It might be useful, to document these two szenarios, so here we go: > > > <p>Due to restrictions in their licenses source code may or may not > be available for packages in the "contrib" and "non-free" directories, > which are not formally part of the Debian system. > There are some packages, for which the source code is available, > but not distributable via the Debian archive, so it has to be pulled > from the site of the origin author or company when installing. > Examples for this case are the <tt>broadcom-sta-*</tt> packages, a > driver for Broadcom wireless adapters. > Moreover to this, the source code might not be available at all > and only a binary "blob" is distributed by the origin company. > A notable example for this is the Adobe Flash plugin in the > <tt>flashplugin-nonfree</tt> package. > > > Comments?
But was the mention of nvidia dropped deliberately or accidentally? Is nvidia not one of these binary blob packages? Or was it just a matter of the paragraph being long enough already? -- hendrik > > Maybe from Justin regarding the grammar? ;-) I have no problems with the grammar. But then I'm Canadian, not English, and English is actually my second languge (albeit the one I know best). -- hendrik > > > Holger > > > > ~Andy Mender > > > > On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 8:44 PM, Holger Wansing <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > Hendrik Boom <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Sat, May 07, 2016 at 09:45:43PM +0200, Holger Wansing wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > > > Justin B Rye <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Joost van Baal-Ilić wrote: > > > > > > > Holger Wansing wrote: > > > > > > >> <p>Some packages are only distributed as source code due > > > to the restrictions > > > > > > >> in their licenses. Notably, one such package is > > > <tt>pine</tt>, see > > > > > > >> <ref id="pine"> for more information. > > > > > > >> > > > > > > >> So if we remove pine from the doc, we need another example for > > > such > > > > > > >> nonfree software, which is only allowed to be distributed as > > > source code. > > > > > > >> Is anyone aware of such software? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > publicfile. There is > > > https://packages.debian.org/publicfile-installer . > > > > > > > > > > > > Except that publicfile isn't an example "only distributed as source > > > > > > code". Debian doesn't distribute even that much - instead the > > > > > > installer package *fetches* that code from upstream. > > > > > > > > > > Hmm, if there are only few of such packages, that topic is probably > > > > > not > > > > > worth a frequently asked question (FAQ)? > > > > > So skip the whole sentence? > > > > > > > > Isn't one of those packages nvidia's own drivers? That is, at least, > > > > an important one, and may be worth a mention. > > > > > > That's mostly covered by the next sentence, I think: > > > > > > <p>Source code may or may not be available for packages in the "contrib" > > > and "non-free" directories, which are not formally part of the Debian > > > system. > > > > > > > > > > > > We could enhance that a bit, maybe: > > > > > > <p>Due to restrictions in their licenses > > > source code may or may not be available for packages in the "contrib" > > > and "non-free" directories, which are not formally part of the Debian > > > system. > > > Notable examples for this are <tt>nvidia-*</tt> driver packages. > > > > > > Does such text fit for the nvidia drivers packages? > > > > > > > -- > ============================================================ > Created with Sylpheed 3.5.0 under > D E B I A N L I N U X 8 . 0 " J E S S I E " . > > Registered Linux User #311290 - https://linuxcounter.net/ > ============================================================ >
