Re: [ELPA] new package: tramp-docker

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > While I am still in doubt whether it is possible to ensure a container
  > can only be built using free software, similar to .deb packages, short
  > of not using anything beyond official repos, 

If that is the only reliable method, we should publicly say so.
First we should see what we can find.

  > Partially agree. What we need to separate out is a mechanism to
  > build/package/deploy (e.g. dpkg, containers) from mechanism to
  > distribution (debian repos, docker repository).

In the abstract, I think your logic is correct.

Nonetheless, there seems to be a difference in practice between what
tends to happen when people release programs in other ways and when
people release them in containers.  When developers release tarballs,
various users build them and may report, "Hay, this depends on the
nonfree library libdropdead."  But when developers release containers,
users tend not to notice that one of the 50 packages included is
libdropdead and that that is nonfree.

This isn't the place to continue the discussion.  I should move
it somewhere else.  Would you like to be part of it?



-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)