Connecting to proprietary web services (was Re: F14: what to do about pino / twitter)

[Torstein Adolf Winterseth]

2010/10/1 Adam Williamson <awilliam at redhat.com>:
> On Fri, 2010-10-01 at 15:50 -0400, Matthias Clasen wrote:
>> On Fri, 2010-10-01 at 14:52 -0400, Colin Walters wrote:
>> > This is definitely scope creeping the discussion here, but I'm coming
>> > round to the viewpoint that Fedora shoudn't ship any application in
>> > the default install whose primary purpose is to connect to proprietary
>> > web services, or at least not ones configured by default to do so.
>> > (All apps are of course free to be in the repositories).
>> >
>> > This would dovetail nicely with making it not suck to install applications.
>>
>> I don't think this is a useful direction to take the F14/pino problem
>> into. If we stop installing applications that are useful for users, then
>> the users will go somewhere else.
>
> This is the same argument you can make with proprietary hardware
> drivers. Ultimately we've always agreed with the FSF position that
> encouraging the use of proprietary software just makes it less likely
> that free software will be written, so we shouldn't do it.
>
> The situation here is exactly analogous. If we choose to, say, ship a
> client configured to connect to identi.ca by default instead, we're
> putting our weight behind freedom in a very important area, just as
> important as hardware support.
>
> I'd say we shouldn't adopt contradictory policies here.

With that in mind. What about Rhythmbox, being installed by default,
defaults to having the Last.fm plugin enabled. Last.fm is proprietary
and there is a FaiF alternative, Libre.fm, available. There is a way
for Rhythmbox to use Libre.fm in stead, however that require you to
edit a GConf key. Proprietary and FaiF services are not given equal
opportunities here.

What to do about that? Have Rhythmbox preconfigured to Libre.fm by
default? Turn the Last.fm plugin off by default? Perhaps investing
some time making the plugin more agnostic to which services and have
it give users a fair choice.

As it is now, Libre.fm is pretty undiscoverable.
> --
> Adam Williamson
> Fedora QA Community Monkey
> IRC: adamw | Fedora Talk: adamwill AT fedoraproject DOT org
> http://www.happyassassin.net
>
-- 
Mvh / Kind regards
Torstein Adolf Winterseth