#57: Seeking Council feedback/input on draft third party software policy -------------------------+--------------------- Reporter: pfrields | Owner: Status: new | Priority: normal Component: General | Resolution: Keywords: workstation | -------------------------+---------------------
Comment (by uraeus):
Replying to [comment:37 cwickert]:
Sorry for joining the discussion so late. Overall I'm happy with what I
read, most importantly that people brought up the same concerns I share.
I'm +1 on the first part of the statement that was already ratified in
comment:34 and I definitely want opt-in.
I don't care much how 'explicit' the graphical presentation of the opt-
in is, this is up to the
UI designers. Including non-free apps may be suggested (e.g. ''"some
results were excluded from
your search. Click here to show them"'') but not recommended. A simple
confirmation of a default > is not enough, I want the user to actively do it. And we need a "More Info" link that explains
the background, e.g. why we believe in FLOSS.
I can't help but feel that most of this discussion is done thinking of generic searches. I mean this kind of hiding can sorta work if people search for a term like 'games', but if a user searches for 'Steam' then hiding the search results like this comes of as annoying and stupid.
What I want most of all is that FLOSS is preferred over non-free
software. Searching for Chrome
should return "Chromium" before "Chrome" if possible.
Again I wonder if this is one of those things that works as a specific example, but quickly falls down in the general case. As mentioned just above, if we are talking a general search term like 'web browser' than sorting free first seems not unreasonable. And to some degree if people search for Chrome then prioritizing Chromium could maybe be justified although I am already feeling we are close to being annoying with such a move. And it also feels very Chrome specific, as the number of 'non-free' applications with a open source twin is a very small club. And of course returning for instance Web or Firefox on a 'Chrome' search is without a doubt crossing the line from trying to gently push people in the right direction to just being obnoxious.
This being said I'm happy with
"The Council recognizes that allowing selected third-party non-free
software to be installed is a valid experiment in advancing Fedora's mission. Non-free software may not be presented to the user without explicit user enablement in any Fedora Edition or Spin."
but I think we need one more sentence for the issues mattdm raised in
comment:35.