Re: webmin license
<corrected my typo in the headers from the last message :( >
The question is a real one: the webmin license is free for Linux
only. Thus webmin could conceivably be judged DFSG free for
Debian GNU/Linux and fall into non-free for all other ports. I tend to
agree with you, but this question must be posed and an answer that is
satisfactory to all must be agreed upon relatively quickly now that there
are two porting projects on the books. There is one point, you
and I are falling into the "port" problem--again, I think that there needs
to be a verbal distinction between a port of Debian GNU/Linux to other
architectures and port of the Debian userspace to other kernels. A
license that restricts architectural ports is unequivocally foolish, one
that restricts kernel ports is often perceived as less foolish, though
IMHO it's just as foolish.
On 17 Dec 1999, Henning Makholm wrote:
> John Galt <galt@inconnu.isu.edu> writes:
>
> > Here's the general case of this question: should a license that
> > restricts one port of Debian (ie Debian GNU/Linux, Debian GNU/Hurd,
> > or Debian *BSD ATM) into placing it into non-free consequently
> > restrict all ports, despite the DFSG-freeness of the licensure in
> > their case?
>
> The DFSG is device-independent. Something cannot be DFSG-free on one
> architecture without being DFSG-free on all. The DFSG requires that
> I'm allowed to compile, distribute and run the program in *any*
> environment I care to port it to. If the license does not allow that
> it is not DFSG-free anywhere.
>
> This is not just dead formalism, it is an essential part of freedom.
> Free software should not attempt tie the user to a specific class of
> hardware or operating systems. When I decide to base my business on
> free software I expect to be able to take that free software with
> me when the machines I have become obsolete and I invest in new ones.
>
> --
> Henning Makholm "What the hedgehog sang is not evidence."
>
>
> --
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I can be immature if I want to, because I'm mature enough to make my own
decisions.
Who is John Galt? galt@inconnu.isu.edu
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