Interoperability among .deb implementations
Whether or not the proposed GR passes, I believe we need to figure out
some way of coordinating the Debian-based distributions so we do not
end up in an "RPM" type of situation where supposedly common formats
lead to highly inconsistent systems. Here's what I think is needed:
1. Some sort of way to identify the source of a package. Maintainer
fields are insufficient, since maintainer email addresses may not
correspond with the distributor. (Consider a maintainer who also
works for Corel, or maintainers who may decide to produce packages for
Debian and for the non-commercial distribution including non-free to
be named later.)
2. Some master registry of package names.
3. Some agreement that redistributed packages will not be gratuitously
repackaged or modified, perhaps reinforced by an agreement that
DFSG-free packages will be integrated into Debian and that other
vendors will be able to provide non-voting Debian maintainers for
DFSG-free packages. (Rationale: as long as other vendors do not
actively seek to subvert Debian, and agree to be bound by the DFSG and
social contract when providing packages to Debian proper, there is
IMHO no reason to exclude them. And there's no point in each .deb
vendor gratuitously duplicating work.)
4. Common agreement on a classification scheme. (Since Debian will
only distribute DFSG-free packages, and refuses to make policy
segregating non-free, perhaps Debian would not be involved in this
part. But non-free includes lots of different subcategories that are
important to other vendors. For example, WordPerfect Office 2000
comes in .debs that are incredibly non-free. Pine is a much different
beast that WPO.)
I'm probably missing some stuff, but this seems like a good start.
Comments?
Chris
--
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| Chris Lawrence | Your source for almost nothing of value: |
| <quango@watervalley.net> | http://www.lordsutch.com/ |
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| Grad Student, Pol. Sci. | Are you tired of politics as usual? |
| University of Mississippi | http://www.lp.org/ |
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