Fedora board vote and way forward

[Adam Williamson]

On Fri, 2014-01-24 at 14:03 +0000, Richard Hughes wrote:
> On 24 January 2014 12:30, Josh Boyer <jwboyer at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> > In short: no known locations/links/repo files to 3rd party software,
> > informative messaging before allowing installation if a search is
> > done. Hopefully that clears things up.
> 
> That's not clear at all. So if the user searches for "chrome" in the
> software center, are we allowed to show them a link to the Google
> Chrome website? If so, how do we know what the website URL is if we
> can't store it somewhere?
> 
> This sounds more and more like installing non-free software is going
> to be impossible unless some compromises are made.

There is a fundamental difference between the user searching for the
software *in the Fedora software center* and having it offered to them
and them searching for it *on the internet* and finding it.

The former comes with a clear implication that 'this content is
Fedora-approved'. It's come from a Fedora application, after all. This
principle is, so far as I can tell, universally recognized: every
software vendor that offers an app store of some kind has implicitly
acknowledged that they 'stand behind' said app store to some extent, by
tending it. Apple tends its app store notoriously heavily - and, of
course, Apple is right up there at the top of the charts in terms of
knowing what its users consider it 'responsible' for and what they don't
- but even Google tends the Android app store more than many people
realize, partly for purely selfish reasons but also partly for
'self-defense' reasons, because it recognizes this principle that by
making software accessible from something which it is clearly
responsible for, it becomes responsible for that software. I'm not
suggesting you're not willing to do this 'tending', I'm making a larger
point: by making software available through our 'app store' we send a
message that we stand behind that software, and Fedora does *not* stand
behind non-free software.

I keep seeing the idea of 'search for software in Software' and 'search
for software on the web' discussed as if they were almost identical, but
they absolutely are not.

To make it crystal clear: I see a huge difference both in principle and
practice between 'user searches for Chrome in Software, finds Chrome,
maybe clicks through a disclaimer they entirely ignore, installs Chrome'
and 'user searches for "Chrome Linux" or "Chrome Fedora" on the Web,
finds a page not maintained by Fedora, clicks a link, and Chrome is now
available through the packaging system'.
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | XMPP: adamw AT happyassassin . net
http://www.happyassassin.net