Re: [H-source-users] Shall we remove debian from h-node? (was Re: [bug #63209] devuan GNU/Linux not on list of supported distributions)

[bill-auger]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:51:20 +0200 Denis wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:28:44 -0400 bill-auger wrote:
> * add replicant and hurd?  
>
> Replicant has already been added. And for Guix with HURD, if I remember
> well, everybody agreed to follow your suggestion to mention it in
> "tested with the following kernel libre" and not as a distribution.

sry, i conflated those, confusingly - replicant and hurd are
distinct concerns - i am not advocating for guix+hurd as a
white-listed distro - the suggestion is for hurd to be a
white-listed kernel, independent of any distro


On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:51:20 +0200 Denis wrote:
> As I understand still keeping the information about the distribution is
> useful because there is a lot of corner cases, like firmwares loaded
> from userspace software and not going through the kernel at all for
> instance. 

i agree that the distro names are useful; and they are intrinsic
in the database already, so can not be deleted, regardless

the over-all goal being, to demote distro names as a primary
factor for determining "does it work?" or "will it work for me?",
- the significance of distro names is much much less than the
kernel and kernel modules in use; but those are unconstrained
(unreliable) free-entry fields now


On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:51:20 +0200 Denis wrote:
> In addition sometimes there are nonfree userspace drivers for
> printers for instance.

... which reinforces my claim that the distro names are
relatively insignificant - those drivers probably are not
distributed by any distro; but the user installed them - those
could raise a false-positive regardless of the distro


On Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:51:20 +0200 Denis wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 20:28:44 -0400 bill-auger wrote: 
> > * add categories for SBCs and phones?  
>
> I don't remember the status of that, but the main idea was to have a
> general "computer" category too to make it more clear that you can add
> anything that is a computer.

well, there really is no "status" (per-se) on any of these
issues - these are still only discussions at this point - there
is now a category for laptops - if that is a reasonable
granularity, then SBCs and phone are on that scale

i assume that there is not a general "computers" category,
because most complete computers (desktops and servers) are not
problematic - their hardware is mostly replaceable and mostly
libre anyways - a decade ago when the h-node ground-work was
laid, only laptops were especially problematic - SBCs and
phones were not on the libre radar at that time - if SBCs and
powerful phones were as ubiquitous as they are today (and if
libre software existed for them then), there would most likely be
categories for those already