Re: [Opencd-devel] Source

[Henrik N. O. <h....@bt...>]

On Fri, 2002-05-03 at 00:08, Steve Mallett wrote:
> On Friday 03 May 2002 05:00 am, Toby Inkster wrote:
> > On Fri, 3 May 2002 00:47:42 +0100 (BST)
> > Imran Ghory <im...@bi...> wrote:
> >
> > IG> How are we going to satisfy our obligation to distribute the source
> > IG> under GPL, are we going to include it (and thereby half the amount of
> > IG> stuff we can get on the CD) or offer it seperately ?
> >
> > We offer it as tarballs/ZIP files on the website. The *vast* majority of
> > people using the CD are not going to want the source code. The majority
> > probably aren't going to know what source code even is.
> 
> That may or may not be true.  People who have vast computer experience (IT 
> depts) may have just the excuse they were looking for to install one of these 
> apps.  Imagine the impact....  Timmy installs Mozilla, plays with it, likes 
> it.  Conclusion:  This really is good stuff.  "Source code?  They don't 
> really do that, that's crazy."  Timmy surfs the CD.  Holy Mackeral!  They 
> really do distribute the source.  Let's go that extra yard & hammer what 
> we're all about home.
> 
> I'd suggest, in my limited experience, that we take a 700M CD, cram it with 
> useful apps & IF there is space left on the CD we put the src on it.  Once 
> there are enough (and their may be now) apps on the CD that it is full we 
> move the src code to a website.

First of all, I don't think we shuld cram in 700MB.  We should follow
very strict criteria for quality, which at the moment only gives us
about 200MB I would think.  

Even so, I'm inclined to agree with Toby, that the source doesn't need
to go on (it's not required by GPL either).  The person who wants to
play with it can find it online.  For the rest, we should consider
making a section "What is source?" 

The only important reason I can see for including all the source is for
distribution to places like India, where there may not always be
internet available, and it would be great to start some 12 year old off
hacking his way out of poverty.  Even then I think it might be better
with a companion CD with all the source and devel tools.  We'll have to
go that route once the CD bis over half full anyway.

- Henrik

btw: lets take such discussions to the forum at opensourceware.net, it
doesn't really pertain to installer development.

-- 

Henrik Nilsen Omma             Theoretical Physics, Oxford
35 Frenchay Road               1 Keble Road
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