[Dev] [consensus][due: 2016-06-13]: New version for Parabola Social Contract

Luke g4jc at openmailbox.org
Sun Jun 12 04:00:38 GMT 2016


On 06/11/2016 11:42 PM, Luke Shumaker wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I've written my own version of the Free Culture bits, and revised the
> draft that I submitted before.
>
> You can look at the changes I've made in git[0] (I recommend cloning
> it, and using GNU wdiff's `-d` flag to view changes.  I wish cgit had
> a `wiff` mode).
>
> Some notes about meaning:
>  - I've inserted the Free Culture bit as item 2, bumping the remaining
>    items up.  I absolutely believe that it should be its own item, and
>    not be rolled into the Free Software item.
>  - The the Free Culture item is based heavily on §2(b) of our
>    agreement with Ceata[2].
>  - Based on fauno's and my comments n this thread, I've revised the
>    external links.
>  - It says "democratic" in item 4.  Marcio wants to change that to
>    "adhocratic".  I think this should be discussed, but defer to the
>    original version's use of "democratic".
>
> Some notes about language:
>  - I've normalized on saying "Free" instead of "libre".  I'd tried
>    normalizing on "libre"[1], but with adding a section on Free
>    Culture, it read weird to mention the Free Software Movement, the
>    Free system Distribution Guidelines, Free Culture, et c. while
>    never saying "Free" except in the names of things.
>  - I've fixed up the grammar and language.  It now consistently speaks
>    of Parabola in the first person, and uses the present tense (except
>    for item 5).  Before it varied, even within sentences.  Item 5 is
>    in the future tense because I couldn't make it sound good in the
>    present tense.
>  - To refer to Arch, I wrote “GNU/Linux system "Arch Linux"”.  I
>    believe that this acknowledges the name that the Arch devs have
>    chosen, but avoids supporting their mistake.
>
> [0]: https://projects.parabola.nu/~lukeshu/social-contract.git/tree/Parabola_Social_Contract.md?h=proposals/lukeshu&id=89181428abb804ec94ed17b8732ff71540b01bdb
> [1]: https://projects.parabola.nu/~lukeshu/social-contract.git/tree/Parabola_Social_Contract.md?h=proposals/lukeshu&id=4bff3eb91bbd883ae584401fd660855f16a1e055
> [2]: https://projects.parabola.nu/ceata-agreement.git/tree/Parabola+Ceata_Agreement.markdown
>
> ----
> Title: Parabola Social Contract
>
> The Parabola Social Contract is the commitment that we, the Parabola
> project, make to the Free Software community in general and our users in
> particular. It is because of this that our social contract will always
> follow the philosophy of Free knowledge. All amendments to this social
> contract must be faithful to the spirit of the [Free Software
> Movement](https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software).
>
> 1.  **Parabola is Free Software**: Products of the Parabola project
>     follow the [GNU Free System Distribution
>     Guidelines](http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html).
>     They do not include or recommend non-Free software or documentation
>     and do not provide any type of support for the installation or
>     execution of non-Free software. This includes: proprietary software,
>     binary only firmware or binary blobs.
> 2.  **Parabola is Free Culture**: All documentation and cultural works
>     included in products of the Parabola project are [Free
>     Culture](http://freedomdefined.org/Definition), with the exceptions
>     of: non-modifiable license texts, works under the GNU Free
>     Documentation License with invariant sections, and works of opinion.
>     All documentation and cultural works created by or for Parabola are
>     Free Culture, with no exceptions.
> 3.  **Parabola and other distributions**: Parabola's objective is to
>     support the Free Software Movement, so we only need to compete
>     against non-Free software; other Free Software projects are to be
>     cooperated with, not competed with. Parabola strives to support
>     other Free Software projects as best we can and any information from
>     our project is available for anybody who needs it. That includes our
>     packages and repositories.
> 4.  **Parabola and its community**: Parabola's community is democratic
>     in its essence, so the community is to be included whenever there is
>     a need to make a decision. We encourage community participation in
>     the development of the project.
> 5.  **Parabola and Arch Linux**: Parabola will produce an operating
>     system that is a Free version of the GNU/Linux system "[Arch
>     Linux](http://www.archlinux.org/)" and possibly other
>     Arch-based systems. We will provide repositories and installation
>     media without any non-Free software. All Parabola operating systems
>     will be backward compatible with the system they are based on, as to
>     help liberate already working installations. We will respect the
>     design philosophies of the systems ours are based on, to reduce
>     friction from both developer and user viewpoints.
>
Overall the new layout you proposed seems reasonable, however I'm pretty
sure that consensus was to not call it "Arch Linux" at all. This is in
order to remain in good standing with the GNU project.


Per a previous e-mail from RMS:

------------------------------------------------------------------------


In this case, you have to choose to give this kind of respect
either to the developers of Arch GNU/Linux or to the GNU Project.
Respecting the former means joining them in disrespecting us.
-----
and...
-----

  > > What about "Arch (the GNU/Linux distribution)"?

It avoids endorsing the error, so it is ok.
----

------------------------------------------------------------------------

So #5 would have to look like this:

5.  **Parabola and Arch (the GNU/Linux distribution)**: Parabola will produce an operating
    system that is a Free version of the GNU/Linux system "[Arch](http://www.archlinux.org/)" and possibly other
    Arch-based systems. We will provide repositories and installation
    media without any non-Free software. All Parabola operating systems
    will be backward compatible with the system they are based on, as to
    help liberate already working installations. We will respect the
    design philosophies of the systems ours are based on, to reduce
    friction from both developer and user viewpoints.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also agree with part of a previous e-mail you sent concerning free
software... let's not "waste a lot of precious time fighting among
ourselves." We need to get the server migrated and prepare for FISL17
instead.


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