Re: [Savannah-hackers] submission of VSTa Operating System - savannah.nongnu.org

[Alaska Subedi]

address@hidden wrote:
> --------
> [Alaska Subedi <address@hidden> writes:]
>
>
> > I'm evaluating the project you submitted for approval in Savannah.
> > ...
> > address@hidden writes:
> > ...
> >
> > > Andrew Valencia <address@hidden> described the package as follows:
> > > License: gpl
> > > Other License: 
> > > Package: VSTa Operating System
> > > System name: vsta
> > > Type: non-GNU
> > > ...
> >
> > Note that Savannah supports projects of the Free Software movement, not
> > projects of the Open Source movement.
> >
> > We are careful about ethical issues and insist on producing software
> > that is not dependent on proprietary software.
> >
> > While Open Source as defined by its founders means
> > something pretty close to Free Software, it's frequently
> > misunderstood.  For more information, please see
> > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html.
>
>
> Ok, so a GPL operating system using GPL (or BSD, or some public domain)
> tools and programs violates this in what way?

It does not violate the license. From your own ``An Overview of the VSTa 
Microkernel'': `` While each system represents significant new system 
functionality, the frustration has been in the proprietary nature of 
each system--synthesis and experimentation by an outside party is 
difficult or impossible.'' Open Source movement's primary goal is not 
freedom. For them, free software is just a convenience. Open source 
movement just wants source code of some software to be open for people 
to look at. It does not emphasize that everyone everyone be able to 
modify the source code and distribute it. Free Software movement's 
primary goal is to fight for the ideal that information and knowledge -- 
in this case source code -- should be allowed to move and shared freely. 
Savannah tries to provide a place and useful tools for development of 
free software for people who support this cause.

> > It looks like VSTa comes with its suite of programs. Are you planning
> > to host the whole project at Savannah or just the microkernel? Also,
> > you will have to close the sourceforge website if you are to host your
> > project at Savannah. 
>
>
> By "suite of programs" I guess you mean the ports of the various commands
> and utilities?  For instance, GNU fileutils, gcc, etc.?  Yes, I guess so.

We think that it is easy to manage a project if it be split into small 
projects divided according to components. For example, you could have a 
project VSTa-kernel focusing on the kernel, VSTa-utilities focusing on 
various system utilities, etc. But it's upto you and it may not be 
difficult to manage if the size of the source code is not too big.

> Note that closing projects at SF is more a problem of SF than otherwise;
> they do not appear to answer support requests any more.  VSTa was hosted
> there until--without warning--my web contents disappeared.  Queries were
> never answered, so I'm guessing that projects which want their SF presence
> to go away might have a hard time finding somebody who'll do it.  You might
> be putting would-be projects in a Catch-22.

I did not realize that your queries were never answered. If they don't 
respond, that's their problem.

> In any case, I hadn't heard from you for long enough that I trudged onward,
> discovering that my personal hosting company will host my open source
> projects, charging me only their own cost for rackspace and bandwidth.  I've
> always been dumb, but now I'm fat and happy, too. :->

We are sorry that we could not act promptly to your submission. We are 
woefully understaffed and each of us review the projects and answer the 
support questions in our sparetime, usually during the evening or night.

If you still want to utilize Savannah, please reply to this email and I 
will go over the issues again.

Regards,

Alaska Subedi