[rancid] Rancid 3.0 License Change

[Jeffrey Ollie]

On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 12:26 PM, heasley <heas at shrubbery.net> wrote:
>
> Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 03:55:09PM -0500, Jeffrey Ollie:
> > I was just looking at some of the changes in Rancid 3.0 alpha and I saw
> > that this clause was added to the license:
> >
> > +## 6. Parties packaging or redistributing RANCID MAY NOT distribute altered
> > +##    versions of the etc/rancid.types.base file nor alter how this file is
> > +##    handled.  The purpose of this condition is to help keep our support
> > +##    costs down.
> >
> > This change makes Rancid non-Free and could be problematic for
> > distributions that package Rancid.  I know that in particular it will be a
> > problem for Fedora.
>
> It is still free; you still pay nothing to us, no one is bound by this clause
> from modifying it for their own use, and it does not prevent parties from
> creating packages.

Yes, it's still "free as in beer" but not "free as in speech".

> I think the goal is clear.  I spend too much time providing support and
> recognize that a few on the rancid-discuss list help significantly; the time
> of neither is free.  I foresee modifications described to be a potential
> rathole that I wish to avoid.

Yes, I saw the comments in the source and understand your goal and can
sympathize.  I just wanted you to be aware of the repercussions.

Personally, I think that having Rancid available in distributions
would make support easier because everything would get installed in
the right place and all the dependencies would get installed as well.

-- 
Jeff Ollie