FSF re-launches Free Software Directory [LWN.net]

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 4, 2011 19:24 UTC (Tue) by djs (guest, #80619)
In reply to: FSF re-launches Free Software Directory by gerdesj
Parent article: FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

The Free Software Directory only includes projects that are confirmed free. The curators make sure that the software listed is compliant with its licenses and that it doesn't require non-free dependencies.

I believe the Free Software Directory is a unique and important contribution to the free software community because similar services, like the one provided by freshmeat, include proprietary software in their listings.[1]

To my knowledge, there aren't any other services that only index free software, and that is why I feel the Free Software Directory is enormously beneficial and necessary. It exclusively contains free software, whereas a user on a site like freshmeat might go from viewing a free software project to a non-free software project with one accidental mouse click.

The Free Software Directory and freshmeat have different requirements and priorities; I think it's great that one can find free software through both services.

1. http://freshmeat.net/tags/proprietary

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FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 4:24 UTC (Wed) by k8to (guest, #15413) [Link] (5 responses)

But I don't think most people see the practical value of making sure that the database has no proprietary projects listed. To me, the ability to use the interface in a mode that it clearly is only returning free software results seems to satisfy the goals.

I mean, yes it has to share the database with listings of proprietary software, but I don't really see any end to that sort of purity. We hae to share the internet with proprietary software, right?

Is there some case where the goals sought by the different projects would not converge?

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 10:04 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link] (4 responses)

You could see it as about self-certification.

Self-certification (e.g. for the EU mark) is a popular approach to standards compliance. Most traders are law-abiding, they disobey regulations because they are ignorant of them, so attaching education campaigns to the self-certification process gets a fairly good compliance rate. Self-certification has a low barrier to entry for hobbyists and small businesses, and it's cost-effective. But it does mean accepting that a certain proportion of toys sold won't be safe, a certain proportion of household electrical items will catch fire for no good reason, and so on. For society at large this is a fair deal, but if you're a single issue organisation, the trade off looks different.

On Freshmeat, last time I used it, you just pick a license from a drop-down. You aren't quizzed on whether you understand what the implications are, there isn't even a perfunctory attempt to verify that you're the legitimate copyright owner, or that the owner or owners authorised distribution of this software under the specified license.

For example, it's not uncommon for a "Free Software" game to have just copied the entire artwork from a non-free game, with perhaps some half-considered intention to replace it later. Obviously the FSF does not want to list something like that, but Freshmeat are happy to until someone complains about it.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 10:14 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

That should say CE mark.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 15:13 UTC (Wed) by johnsu01 (subscriber, #34757) [Link] (2 responses)

Exactly. And the review process for getting into the Free Software Directory turns out to be a service we provide to the community, which helps make sure people are following good licensing practices. Historically, a high percentage of the projects end up making some improvements to their practices during the process of getting listed in the Directory. These improvements help make sure users downloading the software know all the freedoms they have with it, and have all the source code they need.

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 16:07 UTC (Wed) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link] (1 responses)

Do you have a sense of how thorough that review is compared to the review done by Debian and Fedora packagers? (My intuition is that the distributions do a pretty good job of this and likely scale better, though of course they aren't going to include things like FOSS apps for proprietary platforms.)

FSF re-launches Free Software Directory

Posted Oct 5, 2011 18:21 UTC (Wed) by johnsu01 (subscriber, #34757) [Link]

Sure, it's pretty comparable, and the future plan for the Directory is in fact to import information from distributions (automatically). But the Directory has also always had a lot of upstream unpackaged software in it, and given that the technical bar for being in the Directory is lower (you don't have to know how to build a .deb for example in order to have your program added, as long as you have a tarball of source), I'd expect that trend to continue. Which means, I hope, that the Directory will be a useful place to look for distro contributors to find new software to package, and because we've checked the licensing, their job will be easier.