Hello, I was seeing the FSF's GNU site and noticed that CentOS was included as the proprietary or unendorsed distribution and not as the one following their free software distribution guidelines. So my question is, is it really not possible to comply with them or are we just not willing to! I think by default all software comes (at least with the server stuff) is free on CentOS but though not sure about that kernel "blob" thing! ** *All of the distributions listed on this page fail to follow the guidelines in at least two important ways:* - *They do not have a policy of only including free software, and removing nonfree software if it is discovered. Most of them have no clear policy on what software they'll accept or reject at all. The distributions that do have a policy unfortunately aren't strict enough, as explained below.* - *The version of the kernel Linux that they distribute includes blobs: pieces of object code, distributed without source, usually to help operate some device.* CentOS *We're not aware of problems in CentOS aside from the two listed above: there's no clear policy about what software can be included, and nonfree blobs are shipped with Linux. Of course, with no firm policy in place, there might be other nonfree software included that we missed.* Best, Bassu ------ A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that?s teamwork. -John Wooden -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090811/ac10fa8f/attachment-0003.html>
Bassu wrote:> Hello, > > > I was seeing the FSF's GNU site and noticed that CentOS was included as > the proprietary or unendorsed distribution and not as the one following > their free software distribution guidelines. So my question is, is it > really not possible to comply with them or are we just not willing to! > I think by default all software comes (at least with the server stuff) > is free on CentOS but though not sure about that kernel "blob" thing! > > > > > ** > > *All of the distributions listed on this page fail to follow the > guidelines in at least two important ways:* > > * > > *They do not have a policy of /only/ including free software, and > removing nonfree software if it is discovered. Most of them have > no clear policy on what software they'll accept or reject at all. > The distributions that do have a policy unfortunately aren't > strict enough, as explained below.* > > * > > *The version of the kernel Linux that they distribute includes > blobs: pieces of object code, distributed without source, usually > to help operate some device.* > > > CentOS > > *We're not aware of problems in CentOS aside from the two listed above: > there's no clear policy about what software can be included, and nonfree > blobs are shipped with Linux. Of course, with no firm policy in place, > there might be other nonfree software included that we missed.*We rebuild the "RHEL sources" kernel ... what does it say about them. It will say the same thing about CentOS. We are not interested in changing the kernel ... it has to be the same. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 251 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090811/8c6438af/attachment-0003.sig>