[Replicant] Replicant Digest, Vol 193, Issue 4

David Heath dheath.pr at gmail.com
Mon Oct 24 01:16:49 UTC 2016


Hello. For what it's worth, I think non-free should be available to
encourage adoption of Replicant. Would it be acceptable for Replicant's
F-droid to simply hide all non-free by default or clearly present a
non-free warning for those apps? This seems quite simple if F-droid's repo
allows for categorical tagging, but if that is not possible, perhaps
segregating the repos is necessary. I understand that it may be desirable
to not ship any non-free repo, in which case the latter might be necessary,
but adding the non-free repo should at least be convenient for new users
who want the same Android apps they have become used to. Personally, I
believe just using Replicant is a good step in the right direction. Clear
warnings and categorical stratification seem ideal to me.

On 23 Oct 2016 8:00 am, <replicant-request at lists.osuosl.org> wrote:

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>    1. Re: fdroid on replicant: dfsg changes (Josh Branning)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2016 19:54:21 +0100
> From: Josh Branning <lovell.joshyyy at gmail.com>
> To: replicant at lists.osuosl.org
> Subject: Re: [Replicant] fdroid on replicant: dfsg changes
> Message-ID: <580BB5DD.2050502 at gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
>
> On 22/10/16 02:53, Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli wrote:
> > On Tue, 23 Aug 2016 07:59:10 +0200
> > Simon Josefsson <simon at josefsson.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Den Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:15:19 +0200
> >> skrev Re: fdroid on replicant: dfsg changes:
> > [...]
> >>>>> 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.
> > [...]
> >>>> 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 would be to:
> > 1) Detect Replicant in f-droid
> > 2) Add the ability, with the fdroid-data, to produce a repository that
> >     is fully fsdg-compliant. It would take the stock fdroid-data in
> >     input.
> > 3) host that fsdg-compliant repository
> > 4) make f-droid switch to the fsdg-compliant repository, somehow, when
> >     it is run within Replicant.
> >
> > That way a user could still, willingly, switch repository, while
> > keeping Replicant fsdg-compliant at the same time.
> >
> > Another option would be to:
> > 1) Add compilation switches in f-droid, such as --enforce-fsdg or
> >     --enforce-no-anti-features that would hide all the non-fsdg (or all
> >     applications with anti-features)
> > 2) When building f-droid in Replicant, it would be built with that
> >     compilation option.
> >
> > The advantages and disadvantages of that last approach are:
> > - F-droid wound't be reproducible between Replicant and the official
> >    version.
> > - A user could uninstall Replicant's f-droid and install the official
> >    one instead to get software not shown with the version
> >    shipped in Replicant.
> > - I've no idea if compilation switches are fsdg-compliant or not.
> >    For me it looks like a source version of debian non-free repository.
> >    Coreboot for instance already has such setting, when doing make
> >    menuconfig, there is the "[ ] Allow use of binary-only repository"
> >    option[1].
> >
> >> I see that Replicant is mentioned there now, but this sounds strange
> >> to me given the concern with fdroid.
> > I think f-droid was fsdg-compliant at the time where Replicant was added
> > to the list of FSDG distributions.
> >
> > Privileged extension:
> > ---------------------
> > I tested the privileged extension on Replicant 4.2, it now works great,
> > and I can now update all the applications way faster. I can even
> > install them faster.
> >
> >>> There are large security and usability advantages to including
> > What are the security advantages?
> > As I understand f-droid doesn't require root permissions.
> >
> > References:
> > -----------
> > [1] I mentioned it because having real world example can help,
> >      especially if we need to ask around to see if it is compliant.
> >
> > Denis.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Replicant mailing list
> > Replicant at lists.osuosl.org
> > http://lists.osuosl.org/mailman/listinfo/replicant
> >
>
> I think hiding all applications with anti-features could be a bit heavy
> handed too.
>
> Some things like upstream non-free, adds, non-free network services and
> possibly tracking are not good things, but the user may feel that they
> still want to install the app, and the app may not directly conflict
> with the fsf guidelines.
>
> Other things like non-free dependencies and non-free assets should be
> avoided completely.
>
> I think it may be wise to have a discussion about which of the following
> /have/ to be removed to comply, and make sure we're not just removing
> things because they are not preferable.
>
> https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Antifeatures
>
> For the software that doesn't comply, hopefully there is a way to remove
> those features from the sources.
>
> Josh
>
>
>
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> End of Replicant Digest, Vol 193, Issue 4
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