Re: Proposal for an Emacs User Survey

[Thibaut Verron]

Le dim. 18 oct. 2020 à 06:10, Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> a écrit :
>   > In fact, I would go the extra mile and say Emacs should expressly warn
>   > users over the dangers of installing proprietary software from
>   > unofficial repositories
>
> That could be a good idea.  What would be good occasions on which to warn?
>
> Perhaps in list-packages when it sees a non-GNU repo, or when it sees MELPA?

With the subtlety that non-GNU Elpa would not be a non-GNU repo?

> Perhaps in describe-package and packageinstall, when the package comes
> from a non-GNU repo, or specifically from MELPA?

Not all users use package.el, some still use git (either manually or
through a package manager).

If such a warning becomes implemented, would that automatically make
package managers which do not (or cannot) display the warning as
dangerous as Melpa is currently?

---

Fwiw I still believe that information about Melpa on the webpage
should be available, with appropriate warnings.

When researching options, I found this webpage:
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/addons.html
about IceCat extensions.

It does give the URL for the Mozilla store, with a warning that some
extensions may not be compatible with the goals of the GNU project,
and then it gives a list of vetted extensions.

Those add-ons are vetted for their licence and their free character.
Only the latter would be necessary for Melpa.

A problem with that list is that a lot of those extensions might have
since disappeared from the Mozilla store, but that is not something
that happens frequently with Melpa, especially when it comes to
extremely popular packages.

(Another problem, obviously, is that this page is obsolete, but as I
understand it that's due to technical changes in Firefox, not to the
page being incompatible with GNU policy.)

So, would a similar approach be viable for Melpa in the Emacs manual
and/or webpage?

The work of vetting packages would not be wasted, since the same list
could be immediately reused to populate non-GNU Elpa.