[Ubuntu-ch] Ubuntu 9.04 SwissRemix RC]

[Theo Schmidt]

Daniel Stoni schrieb:
> Hello Ubuntu Swiss Team - below some updates regarding our DVD:

Thanks, Daniel! Can you give us the new deadline for feedback involving changes 
to material at http://www.teamubuntu.ch/pub/9.04-desktop+swiss-remix/ ? (Time 
and day)

...
> LinuxDay Geneva: Talking with Linalis people and visiting their webpage
> I've learned about SwissOS: http://www.swissos.ch
...
> I'm interested in joining efforts, but we have to sort out some points first
> - Naming: SwissOS - vs. Ubuntu SwissRemix. There are good reasons for
> either approach
> - SwissOS includes free and non-free software. This is conflicting with
> the current SwissRemix approach which tries to be 'clean' from a legal
> perspective.

This is always a interesting question between the advocates of "it has to be 
genuinely 100% free" and "everything has to work out of the box". Both is not 
possible, but it is possible to ease the installation of non-free SW with 
several approaches as both Ubuntu and Daniel have done. I would be for the 
current approach. It is also important to be able to sell the DVD and thus not 
include things which would hinder this.

More important than unfree software is however the question of unfree drivers 
and unfree formats.

Of the former I know little and the latter is both legally and philosophically a 
rather grey area. I think Swiss Remix should be able to open as many unfree 
formats as possible, as this is the vast majority. The present version (Build 9) 
does this rather well even if the behaviour is not quite consistent (as it would 
take a lot of time to sort everything out completely).

We must also decide whether to accomodate entirely Swiss law or also 
German/French/Italian law, if Swiss Remix is also to be sold there. In 
Switzerland AFAIK it is legal to include support for reading all unfree formats 
*including* the DCSS library for commercial DVD video. In Germany with a more 
rigorous law and interpretation it is still possible to support all multimedia 
formats as the Ubuntu 9.04 "Mega-Edition" of the magazine Linux-Intern shows: 
they simply include VLC and all xine-libraries which both open just about 
everything without any additional codecs and thus delegate the legal 
responsibilty to VLC or xine. By the way, "Mega-Edition" does the same as we by 
mixing Ubuntu and Kubuntu packages, but ours is better as we include Edubuntu 
and Xubuntu packages (and a few others) as well.

The "Mega-Edition is not a complete solution unless you set the distribution to 
avoid all programs not using VLC or xine-libraries. As it is at the moment in 
both Swiss Remix and Linux-Intern Mega-Edition, it rather depends from where you 
try to access your files: some programs open this multimedia program, others a 
different one. It also varies from desktop to desktop. Thus in spite of having 
VLC and Xine, just clicking on a file may open a program without the required 
codec, at best offering to install this or at worst do nothing or play it 
wrongly. Another problem especially with any OGG files is that often Audacity is 
opened and not the proper player. Also, some prgrams can't distinguish between 
Ogg Vorbis and Ogg Theora content.

So a, real mess which would take a great deal of effort to sort out completely, 
but I think it is good enough at present. The question whether to include the 
DCSS library might be dependant on whether we want to be able to sell the DVD 
just in Switzeralnd or also in other countries. For the former, all experts 
maintain that we could include it.


> Action: The free packages used will be added to SwissRemix, too.
> Reference to  non-free Software installation is being added to the
> postinstall documentation.

Exactly. However my experience is that almost nobody reads any documentation. 
Therefore if their file doesn't work and an explanation isn't offered *at that 
time* they simply say "Linux no good". I think Ubuntu has solved this rather 
well in principle , but as mentioned above the behaviour is not consitent and 
sometimes faulty. Therefore it might be better to use only VLC/Xine based programs.

As for the non-free programs, the APT URL method seems nice, but it didn't work 
for me (file not found in the repository).


> I still collect votes and ideas for default SwissRemix packaging. Should
> the kernel sources be in the remix? Wine is not in - any objections?

Not kernel sources, but perhaps kernel headers and build-essentials. Wine should 
be included but perhaps be set so as to not work straight away or include an 
appropiate warning.

Summing up, I think Swiss Remix Ubuntu should be a remix of Ubuntu, but not a 
redesign, therefore not install other wallpapers or themes as default. SwissOS 
seems to do this. I havn't tried it out, but their website seems to be French 
only, so we have come further.

Cheers, Theo Schmidt