On 24/10/16 02:16, David Heath wrote:
Hello. For what it's worth, I think non-free should be available to
encourage adoption of Replicant. Would it be acceptable for Replicant's
F-droid to simply hide all non-free by default or clearly present a
non-free warning for those apps? This seems quite simple if F-droid's
repo allows for categorical tagging, but if that is not possible,
perhaps segregating the repos is necessary. I understand that it may be
desirable to not ship any non-free repo, in which case the latter might
be necessary, but adding the non-free repo should at least be convenient
for new users who want the same Android apps they have become used to.
Personally, I believe just using Replicant is a good step in the right
direction. Clear warnings and categorical stratification seem ideal to me.
' The system should have no repositories for nonfree software and no
specific recipes for installation of particular nonfree programs. Nor
should the distribution refer to third-party repositories that are not
committed to only including free software; even if they only have free
software today, that may not be true tomorrow. [1]
I guess that would mean a new repository would need to be created if it
is going to stay on the FSF list of "Free Non-GNU Distributions". [2]
But it still doesn't solve the problem of which 'anti-features' are
actually allowed to remain.
For instance, with the non-free network services anti-feature. Even a
browser could be said to use non-free network services, because some
web-servers run proprietary software.
[1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
[2] https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-non-gnu-distros.html
P.S.
If the devs choose to go down the repository route, a free toolchain to
build apps would also be needed, preferably one which can be built
separately from the operating system.
As I understand it, F-Droid are using the stock android toolchain(s) to
build apps as it is.
_______________________________________________
Replicant mailing list
Replicant@lists.osuosl.org
http://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/replicant
