What are consequences of "merger necessitates removal of ... packages due to licensing issues"

[Jim - 815 PIII]

I'm getting a bit confused to the ultimate goal of combining Fedora with 
Red Hat. I only used Fedora to get a decent DVD playing program and some 
mp3 related programs.

I hope this project goes into a direction to expand on the usefulness 
for the Red Hat / Fedora merging. There seems to be some great and 
competent developers working for the project. I hope this move enhances 
the people available to do the development and not cut out "redundant 
employees" for similar program development.

Fedora as a standalone project was an asset to the Linux user. I hope 
the merge is an asset for the Linux community.

Jim

---


Randall J. Parr wrote:
> I received the email announcement.
> 
> I have read every page at fedora.redhat.com
> 
> I have found no clarification about just what the implication is of the 
> following statement from fedora.us and similar statements at 
> fedoda.redhat.com
> 
> * This merger necessitates the removal of certain problematic packages
> due to licensing issues.
> 
> 
> Does this mean that we will no longer be able to go to Fedora to pickup 
> the MP3, mplayer, etc. packages which have not been included in recent 
> Red Hat releases because of potential licensing problems.
> 
> I am not one who complained or had a problem with Red Hat taking this 
> stand BUT I was very, very glad to able to go to Fedora and download 
> versions of these added packages that would work with a standard 
> install. I HAD high hopes the growth of Fedora would lead to a much, 
> much easier to use combination RH[L] + Fedora.
> 
> I am very concerned these vague statements mean that I will be forced, 
> once more, to get these added packages from special purpose, limited, 
> repositories which force me to particular non-standard configurations 
> (must have ALSA, etc.) and/or back to trying to figure out how to pull 
> together all the source, build it, etc.
> 
> I have only recently, through Fedora, been able to *easily* get various 
> sound and video apps working on my RH8 and RH9 workstations. In large 
> part because I could apt/yum apps built to work with my standard RH 
> installs.
> 
> I am also concerned that this "open" project has made only these vague 
> statements. This seems like a pretty major point and one which you'all 
> should be up front about.
> 
> R.Parr, RHCE
> Temporal Arts
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 


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