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Re: [LUG] PowerDVD - still non-free and proprietary



On Sunday 10 October 2004 2:08 pm, Julian Hall wrote:
Hi All,

TurboLinux on the latest LXF cover DVD has PowerDVD included.

(It's not on LXF October or November, but that's besides the point.)

Don't touch it with a barge pole:

Will CyberLink make the source codes open since it's on Linux?
A:Basically, PowerDVD Linux is aimed at commercial Linux market so there will 
be no source codes released. 
 Besides, patent issues also prevent us to do so.
http://www.lugos.si/arhiv/mailinglist/122000/224.html

Do NOT make your system a sacrifice to the proprietary binary. There are 
enough problems with ePatents without GNU/Linux users ACTIVELY installing 
proprietary binary programs that are KNOWN to have patent issues.

Basically, it could well be illegal for you to even attempt to convert this 
'package' to any other distribution or even to copy it. It's not even open 
source, let alone free.

This is someone taking from the community without giving anything back. Like a 
parasitic louse, it benefits from the flexibility of GNU/Linux but refuses to 
allow itself to be 'contaminated' by the freedoms that are fundamental to the 
rest of the GNU/Linux system.

However it 
does not appear to be on Cyberlink's website for download.  Would it be
possible to convert the TurboLinux package into an RPM for Mandrake?  I've
heard it can be done but don't know how/what program I am looking for.

In general terms: 
It's not a simple conversion - there's nothing to stop a TurboLinux package 
using different folders or config files and dependencies to what Mandrake can 
expect. It's like asking if you can change Fedora into Mandrake by changing 
the wrapper. It might look OK but there's no guarantee it would work.

You can only do this with source tarball but as this will NEVER be released, 
you should not attempt to proceed. 

Just use another program, like Ogle.

-- 

Neil Williams
=============
http://www.codehelp.co.uk/
http://www.dclug.org.uk/
http://www.isbn.org.uk/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/isbnsearch/

http://www.biglumber.com/x/web?qs=0x8801094A28BCB3E3

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