[Mageia-dev] rehashing the faac issue

[PhilippeDidier]

andre999 a écrit :
> Johnny A. Solbu a écrit :
>> On Tuesday 30 October 2012 09:37, Malo wrote:
>>> - there is only faac, so why bother? (fuelling the first reason)
>>
>> There is also another side to this, that we either haven't talked
>> about or doesn't know about. We are a Free software community, that
>> includes some nonfree software. (And therefore doesn't qualify as a
>> Free Software community according to some, but that's another
>> debate.) A part of beeing a Free software community is that we have a
>> preference as to what kind of software we are willing to work with.
>> That also means that there are software we are not willing to work
>> with.
>>
>> We could decide that «patented nonfree software» doesn't belong in
>> our distribution.
>>
> That has been our temporary decision, to the best of my knowledge always
> to be reviewed later.
> But as we can see, many users want certain packages in this category, so
> the topic keeps getting raised.
> For myself, with a very strong preference for open source, I'm very
> willing to accommodate those with a preference for certain non-free
> software.
> As well, there will always be proprietory software, particularly for
> niche situations, which is not necessarily bad.
> After all good ideas in proprietory software, which focuses on solving
> real-world needs, can inspire a lot of good free software.
> 


The choice is between 3 options :

A) Let Faac off   ;)
and stay without allowing to work on some multimedia files until an
opensource sofware really works (that's the way it goes since Mageia exists)
hoping that a third party repo provides what Mageia users need when they
are not strict opensource users (nevermind to know if they are a
majority or a minority).
Ordinary users must know that the third repo exists and how to use it
(not for beginners :( )



B) the most simple for admins and QA
if we allow the presence of non strictly free software in tainted
(needing to modify the Mageia policy => that's a Mageia Board decision !
not only a packager vote. )

 if the strict opensource users can discriminate strictly opensource and
non strictly opensource packages

1)
in the tainted repo :
we may have faac (explicitely informing that it's build upon a non free
piece of code)
we may provide handbrake and cinelerra that absolutely need faac
(explicitely informing that they have the same problem as faac because
they are built upon it)

2)
If we can have two versions with different names in the same repo

we can provide vlc-tainted (as it is now, allowing to "update" from the
core repo's same version ) and beside it  vlc-tainted-faaced or
vlc-twisted or whatever working suffix (informing that it is not
strictly opensource, and allowing to update from the core and from the
tainted version)
same for avidemux gstreamer audiokonverter arista and so on
It is simple for ordinary users or beginners: the faac versioned is
automatically chosen
Strict opensource users know what to do if they want purity !


C) More heavy for admin and QA : create a non-free-tainted repo (and
update backport subrepos)
Always need to add a special suffix for vlc, avidemux... built with faac
option in this repo, to "update" them from core and tainted version :
- strict opensource users may not allow this repo... and it is simple
for them
- need to inform ordinary users to allow these repos and why (a little
complex for beginners)


Philippe