Re: CDN Test Results - Should We Continue Using a CDN?

[Ricardo Wurmus]

mikadoZero <address@hidden> writes:

> In "14.4.1 Software Freedom" of the Guix manual it says that Guix is free
> software and follows the free software distribution guidelines.
>
> Is using a proprietary non free CDN as a core part of Guix's
> infrastructure in conflict with Guix's software freedom?

Two things:

1) It is not a core part of Guix’s infrastructure.  People who want to
bypass the CDN can do so by fetching substitutes from berlin.guixsd.org
instead of ci.guix.info.  People can also opt out of getting substitutes
all together or choose to get them from some other build farm.  (The
build farm is little more than another Guix user.)

2) “proprietary” / “non-free” terminology does not apply to services.
See also
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.html

This is a case of “Service as a Hardware Substitute” where we pay to use
hardware that we do not physically control to substitute for having to
own and maintain hardware at a large number of physical locations in the
world.

> Using a proprietary CDN has the potential for an unplanned increase in
> workload.  This is because of the combination of vendor lock in and
> product line discontinuation.  Which could create unplanned rework of
> setting up a CDN elsewhere.  This hinders Guix's resource planning by
> introducing the potential for surprise rework.

There is no vendor lock in.  We can drop and have dropped the use of a
CDN without service interruption.  If the CDN service were to be
discontinued we would simply revert to not offering package distribution
via CDN.

--
Ricardo