Public bug reported:
Since upgrading to Karmic alpha, whenever I start R (r-base-core
2.9.2-1ubuntu2) I get the following text:
-------
R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
Copyright (C) 2009 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
ISBN 3-900051-07-0
R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
This is REvolution R version 2.0.1: the optimized distribution of R from R
Evolution Computing
REvolution R enhancements Copyright (C) REvolution Computing, Inc.
Checking for REvolution MKL: REvolution R enhancements not installed. For
improved performance and other extensions install with: apt-get install re
volution-r
------
I.e, upstream's 9 lines of GPL boilerplate with succint information on
usage and pointers to more information, and then Ubuntu has apparently
added 6 lines of somewhat-garbled advertising for a proprietary product.
There are a few things wrong with this:
1) It's way too long, and in the wrong place -- if you're including
enhancements from REvolution Inc. then by all means give them credit, but make
it a single copyright line next to the existing copyright line. Using their
trademarked name 6 times, their slogan, and putting it all at the bottom is
wholly inappropriate. They should not be more prominent than the actual,
y'know, R core team!
2) The added text is fluffy and not at all information dense -- for
instance, compare the amount of information that the upstream text gives
you about licensing to what we learn from the text at the bottom.
Running 'apt-get install revolution-r', as suggested, will install some
utterly proprietary EULAed gunk on my system, but there is no indication
of this whatsoever to let me make an informed decision. (I only know
because I installed it, noticed it was pulling from multiverse, went WTF
and checked the copying file.) Nor do I know *why* I would want
REvolution R. (Apparently I get both "performance" *and* "enhancements"?
Lucky me?)
2.5) Also it's *garbled* on an 80 character terminal, which hardly seems
ideal.
3) And worst of all, taking a piece of free software and added nagging
for one company's products is completely uncool. I'm not going to start
ranting about precious software fluids -- I don't disagree with Ubuntu's
approach to handling the NVidia kernel module, for instance -- but for
me this is way over the line.
Frankly, I feel betrayed. It's like some part of Canonical
transmogrified into Joerg Schilling or something. Don't make Joerg
Schilling my image of Canonical, please?
As a practical matter, I can also imagine this creating a nice internet
flamefest/PR obnoxiousness ("it's like adding advertisements for MS Word
to openoffice!" yada yada, you can imagine what people would say, esp.
since AFAICT there is no public information anywhere on what you are
trying to do or what your relationship with REvolution Inc. is). I doubt
anyone wants this.
Requests:
- If I install R from universe, please do not tell me anything about
proprietary software on every startup. If I want it then I can find it myself.
(Well, or could if you had information about it anywhere... maybe my google-fu
is just weak.)
- Anywhere that you do tell people about proprietary software, please
make it clear that that is what you are doing.
Thanks.
** Affects: r-base (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
--
core R package in universe nags me to install proprietary software at every
start-up
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/433799
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