[Freehoo-devel] Re: GNU evaluation: Freehoo

[Hugo Gayosso]

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Hello!

I will try to complete Freehoo's evaluation once and for all, it's
been in the queue just too long, please accept our apology for the
looooong delay.


I just reviewed the notes from the previous evaluator and it seems
that there are only a couple of concerns that need to be clarified by
you.



> Freehoo: 
>  Freehoo is a console based messenger for Yahoo! IM protocol with
>  "readline" and "guile" extension support.
> 
> Why another messenger?
>  No other instant messenger has this level of functionality with
>  readline and guile support in console mode. 

We like very much the fact that it supports guile and readline, but
there is a more important thing to consider, and it is the fact that
Freehoo only supports the Yahoo IM protocol as you describe in your
answer below:


> Does Freehoo support JABBER and other IM protocols?
>  Freehoo was developed specifically for Yahoo IM protocol. But it is
>  possible to make it generic for other protocols too. Freehoo will
>  atleast support JABBER in future.

By making Freehoo part of the GNU Project it would be joining a
project whose goal is to provide a completely Free operating system
that doesn't rely on any non-free components.

Freehoo, by design doesn't fulfill this characteristic because it
relies on the protocol used by Yahoo, which to my knowledge is not
Free.  Also, because (as far as I know) there are no Free servers that
implement the Yahoo protocol, if this protocol changes or somehow it
is obsoleted or prohibited to implement, Freehoo will become useless.

Our proposal is that you add support for Jabber too, that way Freehoo
could be useful even if Yahoo decides to remove access to third party
clients by any means.  Also this will fulfill the characteristics we
look for when assembling the GNU system.

What do you think?


Greetings,
- -- 
Hugo Gayosso
GNU Software Evaluators Coordinator
http://www.gnu.org
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