On Wed 20 Aug 2003 07:25, Buchan Milne posted as excerpted below: > Well, the first question I have is, can this software be compiled from > source using only free software available in Mandrake (main + contrib)? > If not, then it can't really be included.
What about PLF? I know they handle quite a bit of stuff that contrib can't, due to the licensing requirements. I don't quite understand all they do and where they draw the lines, but Manoj, if you haven't, consider investigating PLF, as it may be just the type of place for such a thing. As for the driver, I see a very practical use for it. However, one of the reasons I'm on Mandrake is because I support their software libre philosophy, and the others are correct -- given the situation with the DDK, this doesn't belong in the distrib itself. However, PLF? Maybe. I definitely see a practical use for the driver, altho again, the others are correct in that without 2K/XP support, it remains an interesting sourceforge type project, useful for those that need it, but not really practical for a distrib, even licensing concerns aside. That's my opinion, anyway. As well, the current FAT solution, with remounts and symlinks as necessary to integrate it transparently into the Linux fs tree, as I mentioned in my other post to the thread, is close enough to an equivalent solution practically, and a far cleaner software libre solution philosophically, that it'd be preferable here. Still, I could imagine myself using your driver for awhile, as a newbie, precisely for the purpose you stated -- as a "migration aid". (I should mention that I upgraded directly off of Lose98, as the far lesser of two evils as compared to selling my soul to MS with the tradeoffs in privacy they demanded with XPrivacy, so the FAT32 solution was native and natural, here. Recently, for the first time in 6 months, I booted MSWormOS, to uninstall most of the programs and delete much of the MS-centric OS and programming data and etc. I'd accumulated over the decade I "did windows", then shrunk the partition, leaving it there directly bootable on its own disk, should Cooker crash on me and I need a way to d/l a workable Linux install, again, or should I need to test a bug in hardware vs. drivers. Thus, it's finally relegated to a role very similar to monitor/rescue mode on my router, and my old DSL modem, in obscurity waiting in case the REAL OS dies, somehow, beyond easy direct resurrection... If I upgrade to a dual Athlon-64 solution as I'd LIKE to, later this year or early next, I'll probably then delete the last vestiges of the proprietary-ware that was my first and ten year computer home, NEVER to return.. As it is said.. "When I was a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (Paul)) -- Duncan - List replies preferred. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
