XFree86 gone from Fedora Core? WHY!?

[Rodolfo J. Paiz]

At 02:02 5/21/2004, William M. Quarles wrote:
>Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote:
>>No one is likely to sue you for slander or libel. But when you make such 
>>strong accusations in a community like this, you had better be prepared 
>>to back them up somehow if you want anyone to have any respect for you 
>>later. Certainly *I* would like to hear why you feel this is a truthful 
>>accusation.
>
>OK, you might be right, I might be exaggerating here.  But I did find
>something that X.org has done that I can back up: borderline lying and
>hypocrisy.
>
>In the release notes you will find:
>
>Due to the new XFree86 1.1 license introduced in XFree86 4.4 (final),
>later additions to XFree86 may not be incorporated into our codebase.
>
>However, later in the release notes, you find this:
>
>This product includes software developed by The XFree86 Project, Inc
>(http://www.xfree86.org/) and its contributors.

I am not an expert at all, which is why I've posted little to this thread. 
However, the above reads to me like:

  * We have used software written by the XFree86 Project in the past.

  * Due to their new license, we will not use any software they write later.

Gives credit, is consistent, and is clear. What is your issue with those 
two phrases? Remember the intent of the BSD license: "You can do anything 
with this software except claim you wrote it." So you're showing me that 
they do give credit, and the license clearly allows them to use the code 
for anything they please, including a competing project. I don't see how 
you show with this that they're doing anything wrong at all.

>It seems to me that all that X.org would have to do is reword that
>sentence slightly, and they would have met the terms of clause 3 of the
>XFree86 1.1 License.  It seems that they were specifically aiming to not
>meet that license to avoid looking like even bigger hypocrites to people
>who aren't paying attention, but to the accute eye, they're still
>hypocritical.

I have not the faintest idea of what you mean. Perhaps a little 
clarification on the "slight rewording" and its consequences?


-- 
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz at simpaticus.com
http://www.simpaticus.com