[gNewSense-users] Re: VLC is non free?

[Yavor Doganov]

Ivan Ivanov wrote:
> 
> Unfortunately many distros treat software, that includes patented in
> the USA technologies as non-free, because we're all livin' in
> America, you know...

It is not only the US, and even if it was only the US, most distros
still do it for a reason, for actively enforced patents and other
restrictions.  For example, DeCSS is illegal in many countries; you
are a "criminal" only because you know how to download it...  Think
about the police terror to mirror operators (videolan.org was moved
many times in the past because of this).

However, DeCSS is distributed separately from VLC.

Imagine you live in Oklahoma but your distro distributes software
whose possession makes you a criminal according to state or federal
laws.  How would you use such a distro?  No way, if you live according
to the law.

> I agree, that forking from Ubuntu is not a good Idea, 

"Forking" is not quite an appropriate term; gNewSense is not a fork in
the pure meaning of the term. 

It makes no sense to be a branch-of-the-branch of a branch of Debian
that mainly exists to add non-free software and some dubious
"user-friendly enhancements" that should go in upstream projects in
the first place.  It is more non-free stuff to clean/remove, needless
to mention the truckload of Ubuntu-specific bugs and of course the
huge regression with their Launchpad-b0rked translations.  And the
lack of upgrades between stable releases, which basically makes the
distro unsuitable for serious use.