[SlugLUG] Debian As A Server

[Rick Moen]

I see in the Web archives that cerise at armory.com wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 12, 2006 at 10:52:27AM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:

> > Neither Debian nor Ubuntu (nor Gentoo, either) includes in its
> > official collections software that may not be lawfully
> > redistributed, such as proprietary codecs, etc.  However, those are
> > available from third-party package sources.
> 
> Not so with respect to gentoo.  There are several commercial ebuilds.  
> Especially in games-*/

Excuse me, but you seem to be making a non-sequitur statement, and
thereby leading people towards an inference that is just not correct.

For those who aren't familiar with Gentoo, the /usr/portage tree
contains scripts ("Portage" scripts) to install in a Gentoo-specific
fashion software procured in various fashions.  Each such set of
instructions is called an "ebuild".  As such, it's exactly analogous to
FreeBSD's ports system.

In the case of non-redistributable proprietary software (games and
other), the ebuild does NOT furnish (contain) the proprietary software
-- for the self-evident reason that doing so would violate copyright
law.  And that is, please note, exactly what I said.

If that were _not_ the case, the developers would be on the sharp,
pointy end of a lawsuit in _very_ short order, so it should come as no
surprise.

(People _do_ sometimes construct ebuilds that are wholly or partially
under non-redistributable licensing.  However, Gentoo policy requires
them to add a RESTRICT="nomirror" directive into the ebuild, thereby 
preventing it from being accepted into Gentoo proper.  See:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=1, 
section 1b.)

Debian contains similar script bundles in the "contrib" package
collection -- a misleading name, but one that is intended to connote
"software that is itself open source, but requires other software that
is proprietary before it will function."  Examples:  various firmware
loaders and gaming console emulators, various DivX4Linux/Mplayer/XMMS
plugins, various Java apps that require the Sun or IBM JREs,
daemontools/djbdns/qmail installers, a pine/pico/pilot installer, a
Macromedia Flash Player installer, Folding at Home, a Microsoft Web Fonts
(aka msttcorefonts) installer, installers for Nvidia drivers and
toolkits, the Palm OS Emulator (requires ROMs), an installer for Quake
II data files, and so on.