In gmane.linux.debian.devel.x Francois Isabelle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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
