-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Sudhir,
Since you have brought up the subject of FUD, I'd appreciate it if you would clarify some aspects of OpenLX. This would be of immense benefit to both you and the community, since we can then lay the question of whether OpenLX is FOSS or proprietary to rest once and for all. Queries inline... On Saturday 15 September 2007 17:19, Sudhir Gandotra wrote: > [snip] > Vikas, check it for yourself, instead of asking/believing in anyone. > The code is there on the website to download. > Many people have their own hidden agenda and hence their FUD. See it > for yourself. On your web site it states that OpenLX is the ``First Enterprise Grade GPL Linux from India''. In this line does the word ``GPL'' refer to the GNU General Public Licence? If it doesn't, please ignore the rest of this e-mail, just clarify what GPL refers to. On the other hand, if the GPL on that page actually refers to the GNU General Public Licence, then I have strong doubts whether your complete distribution is covered under that tag. Please note that software does not become ``GPL'', nor ``Free software'', nor ``Open source'' just by virtue of running on a Linux kernel. Each package has its own licence associated with it, whether proprietary or FOSS. I would guess that it's nearly impossible to make a usable Linux distribution using only GPL software -- you'd have to exclude packages like X, Apache, Perl and PostgreSQL for a start. However, even if you (mistakenly) refer to all FOSS packages as GPL, if you have included any proprietary packages or software at all in the distribution, you would be committing an error by calling the distribution ``GPL'' or ``Free software'' or ``Open source'' or ``FOSS'' or ``FLOSS'' or any other name that gives the impression that the distribution is a FOSS distribution. This list of packages and software includes any proprietary drivers for cards/chipsets, Flash player from Ad*be and any other software included in the distribution that is not released under a licence approved either by FSF or OSI. Would appreciate your clarifications so that we can end the FUD and get a true and clear picture. Specifically, the questions that I'm requesting you to answer are: 1. Does the GPL in the OpenLX tag line refer to the GNU General Public Licence? 2. Are all the packages in the OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 released under the GPL? 3. Are all the packages in the OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 released under a FOSS licence (i.e. one approved by the FSF or the OSI, or both). 4. If not, what are the packages in the OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 that are not released under a FOSS licence? 5. If OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 contains any non-GPL packages, will you remove the GPL from the tag line referred to above? 6. If OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 contains any proprietary software, will you avoid referring to it as ``GPL'', ``Open source'', ``Free software'', ``FLOSS'' and ``FOSS'' or any word or phrase that gives the impression that OpenLX Desktop Edge v1.0 is a FOSS distribution? Of course, you could continue to state that large parts of it are FOSS, but in that case I'd suggest that you also specify that it contains proprietary software, in the interests of completeness. Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ Freedom in Technology & Software || September 2007 || http://freed.in/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFG7i1vyWjQ78xo0X8RAqaiAKCNMA813V7VUZ3XjKBedmF5oth4iACfcvN3 IoJVXyGotKZwAK0Sa2LwJHM= =IMeS -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - September 28-29, 2007 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
