I just noticed that while XChat is free software for GNU/Linux it is
proprietary software for Windows. This means that if an existing Windows user
tries out the Trisquel live CD to find free as in freedom software and finds
XChat he or she will assume that if there is a version for Windows that it is
also free. In this case there are other IRC clients around that perhaps
should be preferred to XChat such as Pidgin which also has a Windows version
released under a free license. Note that in some cases perhaps there is only
one free software that can do the job that is not available for Windows, such
as HJSlit support via lxslit while HJSplit only offers a freeware version for
Windows. Anyway it would perhaps be best in this case as well not to install
the software by default in order to encourage the adoption of formats
supported by free software on several operating systems including proprietary
ones. Note that most people use non-free operating systems at work or in
school but might be allowed to install software on the computers, so we
should also encourage the use of free software on non-free operating systems.
- [Trisquel-users] Should XChat be included in Trisquel? alonivtsan