[Replicant] fdroid on replicant: dfsg changes

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

Simon Josefsson:
> Den Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:15:19 +0200
> skrev Re: fdroid on replicant: dfsg changes:
> 
>>>> Suggested fix:
>>>> --------------
>>> ...
>>>> The idea is to:
>>>> - make F-droid detect Replicant
>>>> - Add a way to totally hide applications.
>>>> - Make f-droid hide all applications with anti-features, if
>>>> running on Replicant.
>>>>   Hiding all the applications with an anti-feature is sufficient,
>>>> even if ideally we could only hide the anti-features conflicting
>>>> with the FSDG[3] guidelines.
>>>>   Having a more fine grained filter could be implemented later, as
>>>>   right now meeting the FSDG again is Replicant's top priority.
>>>
>>> This could be too heavy handed.  For me, this would make it
>>> impossible to install Face Slim, OsmAnd, Telegram.  Of these three,
>>> only the OsmAnd appear to actually have a licensing issue.
>>>
>>> However, I could live with the solution above if it means having
>>> Replicant a FSF endorsed free distro.
>>>
>>> Another solution is to simply not include fdroid in replicant?!  I'm
>>> pretty sure everyone who is able to install Replicant is able to
>>> install fdroid manually if they so choses.  This approach does not
>>> require any changes at all in the fdroid project, and would solve
>>> things quicker.  What do you think?
>>>
>>> /Simon
>>
>> All we are talking about is setting a preference on by default on
>> Replicant.  So when F-Droid is built into Replicant, it will turn on
>> the pref that hides non-free things.  Replicant users will still be
>> free to go into their preferences and enable non-free things.  This
>> is like Debian contrib and non-free.  Free Software is about freedom,
>> including the freedom to use non-free software if you must ;-).
> 
> As far as I understand the FSF's guidelines, this approach is not
> sufficient to get Replicant included in the recommended OS list from
> FSF.  Debian is not included because it allows the contrib/non-free
> sections.  It would be a shame if Replicant can't be on that list
> because of the same concern with fdroid.
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html
> https://www.gnu.org/distros/
> 
> I see that Replicant is mentioned there now, but this sounds strange to
> me given the concern with fdroid.

That only mentions "optionally free" which is not what we are doing.
We're doing "optionally non-free".  I think FSF rejects Debian because
Debian includes things in the main repos that FSF deems non-free, like
binary blobs in the installer.  But I could be wrong there.


>> There are large security and usability advantages to including F-Droid
>> in Replicant now that we have nailed down the F-Droid Privileged
>> Extension.  That said, the Privileged Extension is ready to be
>> integrated into ROMs, as of v0.2, so we're ready to help you do that
>> whenever you're ready.
>>
>> https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension
> 
> Will that enable unattended upgrade/installs of apk's?  That would be
> awesome!  Keeping my 44 packages upgraded consumes quite some
> manual clicking time...

Yes.  We have automatic background downloading of updates already, you
have to enable it in the preferences.  Now we need to implement the
actual logic of automatic updates.

.hc

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