From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,60cf103f8ae4940d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,domainid0,public,usenet X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news4.google.com!news3.google.com!out02b.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!in04.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!uns-out.usenetserver.com!news.usenetserver.com!pc02.usenetserver.com!news.flashnewsgroups.com-b7.4zTQh5tI3A!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: OpenToken References: <48acd484$0$24596$4d3efbfe@news.sover.net> <9ceb2207-6a3d-407c-84dc-885bfaa07ec1@j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> <1237c2d1-2e12-47e1-868d-47bcb5768266@y38g2000hsy.googlegroups.com> <4fe38d08-25fb-4d9b-abf7-3103b5370dd6@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> <87abetl1t5.fsf@ludovic-brenta.org> From: Stephen Leake Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:40:38 -0400 Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.2 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:LIreosfOtKFXmDXJdhJofNX9Uzc= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Complaints-To: abuse@flashnewsgroups.com Organization: FlashNewsgroups.com X-Trace: 1371648bbdb17c74cf41822222 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:1853 Date: 2008-09-01T08:40:38-04:00 List-Id: Ludovic Brenta writes: > Stephen Leake writes: >> Ludovic Brenta writes: >> >>> On Aug 30, 12:51 am, Stephen Leake >>> wrote: >>>> >>>> I actually have two slightly different versions of OpenToken; one for >>>> GDS (my work project) and one for webcheck (a home project). I've been >>>> waiting for an excuse to merge them; this could be it. >>> >>> Great news. In fact, since OpenToken seems dead upstream, you might as >>> well adopt it for your own and host it on a public revision control >>> system. Ada-France's monotone server is yours if you want it; >>> otherwise you can go to SourceForge, Gna!, Berlios, Tigris or >>> Savannah. >> >> What are the tradeoffs between doing that, and becoming a Debian >> maintainer for OpenToken? or both? > > OpenToken already has a Debian maintainer, his name is Reto Buerki[1], > so there is no requirement for you to maintain the package in Debian. > You may, of course, offer to co-maintain the package with Reto. > > [1] http://packages.qa.debian.org/o/opentoken.html Ok. > The one thing that OpenToken lacks is an active upstream author and > web site. The web site should have: > > - a public source code repository > - a public bug database > - optionally, a mailing list. > > Since there are currently few users, I proposed the "lightest" > solution requiring near zero set-up time: > > - Ada-France for the public source code repository (possibly with > mirrors, since monotone is distributed) > - the Debian bug tracking system as a public bug database > - comp.lang.ada as the mailing list (supplemented by each bug in the > Debian BTS, which is a mailing list on its own). Works for me. I can put a simple page on my current website stating where things are. I can host a mailing list on my website if that becomes necessary, like I have for Emacs Ada mode. I'm currently focussed on adding a major new feature to monotone and Emacs DVC, so I probably won't get to doing this for OpenToken for a couple months. Unless I feel like taking a break :). >> I chose gNewSense because it is advertised as 100% Free Software (in >> the GPL sense). For example, the wireless card won't work in the >> laptop I'm getting, because there is no Free Software driver for it. > >> FSF established gNewSense because the main part of Debian is not 100% >> free in this sense; see http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/Features. > > I remember that time. There was opposition within Debian to removing > non-free drivers from the kernel, and even some flame wars. But the > Free Software advocates finally got their way, such that now the > kernel in Debian is split into the main, contrib and non-free sections > (i.e. they split the non-free drivers into their own packages). One > can use only the main section and get essentially what gNewSense > offers. Ah, that makes sense. So http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/Features is out of date, or at least misleading. >> The politics is supporting a laptop/Gnu/Linux vendor that offers >> gNewSense; I hope that promotes the cause of 100% Free Software in >> some way - they can report one more customer interested in it. In >> fact, they did say they are working on a 100% free wireless solution. > > Could you please tell me who that vendor is? I'll be interested, come > time to replace my current laptop (which I got from HP with only > FreeDOS installed). Los Alamos Computers http://laclinux.com/ There are several others that offer Debian; I got the list from the debian.org website. >> Eventually, I'd like to get a Free Software BIOS. That may be the only >> way to avoid DRM, if the DRM advocates get their way. The book >> Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge presents a scary vision of such a thing; >> you can't even order a pizza without a trust certificate, and Gnu Hurd >> is illegal, but the choice of hackers. No mention of Debian :). >> >> Explicitly supporting gNewSense is one way to encourage Free Software >> BIOS development. At least I tell myself that :). > > Yes, at FOSDEM 2007 I attended Ronald G. Minnich's presentation of > LinuxBIOS[2]. From memory, the speaker is from Lawrence Livermore > National Laboratory or similar, and uses LinuxBIOS on supercomputers. > The part I liked the most was when he described how Intel tried to > sell them their new and improved BIOS architecture into which hardware > vendors could add their own proprietary plug-ins. Guess what the > reaction was from people who simulate nuclear weapons on said > hardware? Sounds like the current thread on emacs-devel about adding support for dynamically loading C modules (dlls). > [2] http://archive.fosdem.org/2007/schedule/events/linuxbios I had not realized this was that far along. I'll bug LAC about supporting it for Thinkpad. -- -- Stephe