Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Joshua Gay]

On 04/01/2016 12:02 AM, J.B. Nicholson wrote:
> Whatever the answer to that question, I hope that the guidelines for
> free software distros at
> https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
> will be updated to help us understand the answer and rationale so we
> have something to point to when this issue comes up again and possibly
> avoid the confusion that led to this thread.

The guidelines do not need to be updated in light of anything I wrote.
The paragraph explains pretty clear what distros should try to do: "A
free system distribution must not steer users towards obtaining any
nonfree information for practical use, or encourage them to do so. The
system should have no repositories for nonfree software and no specific
recipes for installation of particular nonfree programs. Nor should the
distribution refer to third-party repositories that are not committed to
only including free software; even if they only have free software
today, that may not be true tomorrow. Programs in the system should not
suggest installing nonfree plugins, documentation, and so on."


> Depending on how this comes out, another essay
> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/is-ever-good-use-nonfree-program.html
> should be considered for updating too because this essay also stresses
> the importance of not urging others to use nonfree software.

I don't see how that article needs to be updated in any way based on
what I wrote in my previous email. Nothing in my previous email suggests
or implies in any way that we should encourage or steer users toward
running propreitary software.

It is true, MAME can be used to run both free software and nonfree
software. But, the same can be said about every GNU/Linux operating
system under the sun. When we recommend people install GNU/Linux on
their computer, we don't then steer them toward installing proprietary
programs to run on the operating system. The same is true if we were to
recommend MAME (or a fork of MAME if that is indeed necessary) -- we
would not encourage them to also download other nonfree programs and
load those into MAME. In fact, we would probably want to try to do a
good job of providing as many free software programs for MAME as we can,
which is what it appears many free software developers are already doing.




-- 
Joshua Gay
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