Installing Flash as an option in usb-creator

[Evan Dandrea]

Some background information before we begin.  I've been developing a
new application this cycle called usb-creator[1].  Its purpose is to
take an Ubuntu CD or ISO file and write it to a USB disk, making the
necessary changes required for it to properly boot.

I had a discussion with the creator of liveusb[2] over the weekend
concerning the lack of necessity for the two projects to coexist and
in turn what functionality we could cherry pick from liveusb and put
into usb-creator.  One point of contention in this conversation was
his desire to have a "Install Adobe Flash" checkbox in the UI that is
disabled by default.  I am of the personal belief that including such
an option violates our legal obligations to Adobe regarding
distribution (though I don't pretend to fully understand them, so if
someone has more insight on this point, please feel free to contribute
to this discussion), that it violates our commitment to open source
and free software solutions, and that any such change in policy should
happen in ubiquity or the seeds, rather than here.

Still, I feel the issue needs a more authoritative response from a
wider set of Ubuntu developers, and thus I would appreciate any
comments as to how this does or does not violate the polices we have
in place.  I originally considered going to the technical board, but
that now strikes me as being reserved for situations where consensus
cannot be reached, and I don't believe we are there yet.

Also, please note that I do not expect to add such functionality in
Intrepid.  It's far too late to be adding wishlist features.

Thanks,
Evan

1: http://launchpad.net/usb-creator ;
lp:~ubuntu-installer/usb-creator/trunk (best place to grab it from, at
the moment)
2: http://launchpad.net/liveusb