cardpics, savannah, sourceforge

[ymettier at libertysurf.fr]

> ymettier at libertysurf.fr writes:
>  > Hi!
>  > 
>  > I just read the paper you wrote about the danger on 
>  > sourceforge 
(http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/article2001-10-
>  > 20-01.fr.html).
>  > I currently maintain some projects that are hosted 
on 
>  > sourceforge (including gtktalog, the others are 
>  > definitely not well known), and the last one I 
launched 
>  > is cardpics, last week, but on savannah.
>  > 
>  > There is something not very clear in the article you 
>  > wrote, at least in the french translation I read. Is 
>  > there a short-term danger for free software that is 
only 
>  > hosted on sourceforge? I mean, is gtktalog (and the 
>  > others projects hosted there) in freedom danger, or 
the 
>  > problem is just that hosting gtktalog on sourceforge 
now 
>  > promotes non-free software?
> 
> 	I honestly don't know. The short term danger that 
everyone
> agrees on is that VA {Linux,Software} becomes unable to 
pay for the
> bandwidth and hosting and that sf.net is closed.

Right.
In moving from sf (my mind, not the project that did not 
exist before 2 weeks ago ;-) to savannah for cardpics, 
one of the main reasons was to promote something else 
than sf: give others some more importance in front of sf.
Of course, the choice of savannah is because it is part 
of fsf that ensures all is free software.

> 
> 	I tend to think that being dependent on non free 
software is
> a danger that has high practical implications. I'm 
happy to use
> Debian GNU/Linux because it is 100% Free Software. It 
is an object
> I can share, help grow, adapt, distribute. I'm not 
happy to use 
> sf.net because it's not Free Software, it became 
foreign to the
> world in which I leave. In that respect, yes, it 
threatens the
> freedom of projects it hosts because it makes them 
dependent on
> software that gives you no freedom at all. 

I was happy to use sf because it was 100% free software, 
at least open source software and at that time, I did not 
make the difference.
Now, I'm more conscious of that difference (nearly like 
free=read/write and opensource=readonly :-)

However, there is another dimension you do not mention.
We need to access to non-free software to see what is 
good in them. Would there have been a so good mozilla if 
there had not been msie?
I do not mean to use non-free soft for every-day use. I 
just mean we need to be able to see how the other works 
to get some good ideas to implement in our free software 
(btw, I'm agains patents because patents would close that 
door!) 



> 
>  > In any case, gtktalog2 will be coded from scratch, 
and 
>  > will be an new project: I won't put it on 
sourceforge. 
>  > When gtktalog1 was launched, sourceforge had the 
monopol 
>  > on free soft hosting because it was the only one. 
Now, 
>  > sourceforge is trying to keep that monopol but there 
are 
>  > alternatives: I prefer to use them (and the fsf one 
looks 
>  > promising)
> 
> 	IMHO, what really matters is that someone willing 
to leave in
> a purely Free Software world can do so. I'm that kind 
of guy and
> therefore I don't want to use sf.net. In that spirit, 
when seeking for
> alternatives I would favor those that are based on Free 
Software and
> built in a cooperative way.
> 
> 	I hope this clarifies things a bit,

Yes, more than a bit.
The answer from the guy from VA (on slashdot) too: he 
answered to all your questions when there was a technical 
answer. No answer when there was only a philosophic 
answer to do. Where is VA going today?

Yves

--
homepage   http://ymettier.free.fr
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gtktalog   http://gtktalog.sourceforge.net