[MPlayer-dev-eng] MPlayer licensing [and lotso other stuff as I'm typing...]

Gabucino gabucino at mplayer.dev.hu
Sat Nov 24 11:03:33 CET 2001


It's the Question that drives us, Felix Buenemann :
> IMHO we should really start clearing mplayer licensing and make it visible to 
> everyone.
After seeing these slashdot dorks (who knows, maybe _they_ are the majorty..)
I thought the exact same. :(


> 1. Do we want to make it fully GPL?
Should be.


> IMHO the best thing is to rule out external non-GPL code from mplayer and 
> make it fully GPL, because then we can be fully assured of our code being 
> protected by it and with it by the FSF.
Agreed.


> Ok I know you think now: But WTF then with binary packages? Yes, we cannot 
> prohibit them anymore then, but we can still deny bugreports and discourage 
> binary packages.
Yes :/
IMHO _we_ should create our own rpm/deb packages, and patch it (like when
segfault or sig, inform users about the advantages of recompiling, RTFM ;)
etc).


> So the binary thing is nothing we have really control, so we shouldn't fight 
> against it.
Yes.. :(


> Rather improve our mailinglists mechanisms by enforcing subscription and make 
> sure users answer set of questions so they don't send improper mails eg. 
> bugreports on binary builds.
Patch binary mplayers to contain a certain strings (v0.60-BINARYBUILD) which
can be (?) filtered from mailman ;) (when included, ofcoz..)


> Simply add a printf at mplayer startup that states: "If you are experiencing 
> performance problems, please read DOCS/SPEED"
(still theory) No links, they won't read them. Print UPPERCASE, short messages.


> In there (or a html like speed-issues.html) put something like:
> "If you are using binary distributions of MPlayer, which is strongly 
> discouraged, be aware of the fact that they degrade MPlayer's performance by 
> not allowing it to make full use of the target system's hardware.
> So if you are experiencing speed problems with MPlayer, try building it from 
> source yourself first and also try cvs version as it might include major 
> speed improvements or new features."
Too long :)


> Btw. we should remove stuff like the "GPL sux" from our public homepage, this 
There was a fake news on a "commercial" Linux site about the death of a
Debian developer. My news seemed to be a joke much more :)


> And we should aswell stop to insult other people on the page, there are 
> better ways to say that other people did something bad, without insulting 
I thought about it, maybe no insulting would have helped more against
warpvision, but.. They are true anyways. (yes some lines are better removed:)


> I know Gabu, you like to flame ;), but does it have to be on our front page?
I should start my own MPlayer forum on mphq :)


> IMHO we're better of keeping the flaming in private and only put the facts to 
> the page.
Yes, I agree.


> Ok, tell me what you think of this and don't flame me to death for it ;)
All that really matters is Arpi's opinion.

-- 
Gabucino

when? where?
nowhere. never. (arpi)
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