On Fri, Nov 06, 2015 at 04:40:35PM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote: > > > I suspect that uploading to the app store also requires nonfree > software, > > > but I don't know for certain. > > > To the best of my knowledge it does not, though some effort is required > > to avoid it. (See some of the recent discussion about the Android SDK > > and its EULA, for instance.) It's possible that it requires proprietary > > JavaScript; I have not personally tested that. > > Proprietary Javascript is what I suspect Google requires. > > However, this is a secondary issue -- the primary one is that the user > must run nonfree software to install the app from there. Leading > others to run nonfree software is more grave than using nonfree > software yourself.
Agreed. I think it's important to make Free Software available for proprietary platforms as a bridge to draw people in; I have a personal fondness for that approach as it's the path I took myself (replacing most of my regularly-used apps on Windows with Free Software replacements that also ran on GNU/Linux, and then replacing Windows with Debian GNU/Linux). > > While I do think we should recommend fdroid.org as preferable and only > > link to it (such as in links from the GNOME application and its > > documentation), and avoid linking to a version in the Play store (e.g. > > "To use the Foo feature, install the Foo application for Android, > > available via https://f-droid.org/...";), that doesn't preclude making > > the application available via the Google Play store for users who > > already have that installed. > > That's true. The program's developers, or others, can put it in the > Google store if they wish. > > My point is that the GNOME Foundation should not do so. That seems like a reasonable point; I'm somewhat inclined to agree for a different reason, namely that the GNOME Foundation should on principle not be paying the entry fee for a proprietary app store, however small. :) That said, I do think it's reasonable for the description of the application *in* the Play store to reference GNOME, in the course of explaining that it works with a specific Free Software program, that the recommended place to obtain the app is f-droid, and providing links to GNOME. _______________________________________________ foundation-list mailing list foundation-list@gnome.org https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-list
