On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Wichert Akkerman wrote:
> Previously Martin Schulze wrote:
> > We are told that the installation routine is free software. Though,
> > only stubs have been made available, iirc.
>
> If you go to ftp.corel.com and browse around you'll find the complete
> sources.
Here's my response to that-- whooptie-do. What bothers me is the trend of
making a distribution out of 99% free software produced by other people,
1% free and non-free software produced by yourself, and then doing nasty
things with the resulting mix. There are variations on this scheme-- Red
Hat takes perhaps closer to 90% free software, mixes in around 10%
non-free software (Debian, at least, and seemingly Corel too, segregates
free from non-free, or tries to... Red Hat mixes them together wholesale)
and their customers (who are largely non-geeks) end up with the impression
that Red Hat wrote it all-- an impression that Red Hat is not wont to
counter, it would seem... But in Corel's case, they're taking a whole
bundle of free software, making a little smidgen of free software
themselves, adding some non-free software, then saying:
* You can't download this mixture until you're 18.
* This is Corel Linux (not Corel GNU/Linux). GNU who?
* We retain title to this software distribution, even though it's
mostly not of our creation.
* GPL? What GPL? I see no mention of the GPL in our license...
They're slapping this traditional proprietary software-like EULA on their
distribution, despite the fact that it's primarily made out of free
software! Something's gotta be legally amiss here, IMHO.
--Caspian
>
> Wichert.
>
> --
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--
= Jon "Caspian" Blank, right-brained computer programmer at large =
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