Re: [ELPA] new package: tramp-docker

[Richard Stallman]

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  > Docker is a platform that provides few services:
  > 1. A uniform container format (Now separated into OCI standard)
  > 2. A way to build and run these containers (docker daemon)
  ...

  > Out of these, #1 is already standardised and fully open.
  > #2 is not exclusive to docker, and there are multiple ways to acheive
  > this thanks to #1 being open.

Sad to say, that doesn't mean that #2 is no problem for software
freedom.  Rather, it means that some methods are a problem and others
are not.

I can't be certain with my current partial knowledge, but I think that
the methods which are a problem are a very grave problem, and we need
to speak to the community about avoiding them.  I think we need to
identify any frequently used methods for building Docker containers
that makes it easy to fail to think about whether the contents are free.

  > 3. A global (and optionally local) container registry (akin to apt-get)

  > #3 is where things start getting fuzzy as docker the platform does not
  > provide any way to ensure containers only include free software. That
  > being said, as mentioned earlier, docker itself is not necessary to
  > build these containers.

I think this is a crucial part of the reason why some ways of
building docker containers are a grave problem.  Would you disagree?

  > As such, the name docker only signifies what has become de-facto calling
  > convention for OCI containers, but otherwise as long as we avoid linking
  > to docker the service, we are in the clear.

That seems plausible to me.

emacs-devel is not the right place to have the discssion about building
containers.  I should launch it in some other place or way.

Do you know enough about containers to help in that discussion?


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)