[Help-gsl] Re: Debian and the GFDL

[Rodney Sparapani]

Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote:
> This is all a little silly, but as you may be aware, Debian considers
> the GFDL to be non-free.[1]
>
> The GSL is currently packaged for Debian, and the docs are under the
> GFDL with some invariant sections. Debian considers those invariant
> sections to be nonfree. The current Debian maintainer doesn't want to
> go through the hassle of splitting the GSL distribution into a free
> and a non-free part and moving all of the docs to non-free. I tend to
> agree with him.
>
> That being said, is it in any way conceivable that the GSL doc could
> be relicensed? It would suffice for Debian to not mark any section as
> invariant. I think overall it would be nice to put all of the GSL,
> including the documentation, under the GPL, but I am aware that some
> people disagree that documentation is software too.
>
> I am asking because it would be easier for us to simply leave all of
> the GSL in main instead of having to go through the hassle, both for
> the Debian maintainers and for our users, of moving parts of it to
> non-free.
>
> By the way, I am asking this not because I particularly agree that the
> GFDL is such a non-free license, but because the rest of Debian does,
> and as a practical matter, it would just be easier for us if it were
> relicensed.
>
> Thanks,
> - Jordi G. H.
>
> [1] http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_001

Well, I think Debian's stance is a little silly.  And, frankly, a
Debian package for GSL is a little silly too.  For some packages,
like XEmacs, it makes sense to have a Debian (what the heck do the
call them, debs?).  XEmacs can be complex to compile and it has alot
of requirements.  But, GSL's requirements are minimal.  Mostly, it
is having a working compiler.  And, you need the compiler anyways
to actually use GSL for the most part, right?  Therefore, it seems
like a waste of time to support Debian, especially, if they require
some overhead on the part of GSL to support their silly policy.

$0.02, take it or leave it

Rodney