Re: [Gnome-print] Re: Gnome printing issues

[Elliot Lee <sopwith redhat com>]

On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Mark VanderWiele/Austin/IBM wrote:

> Chema:  I may have missed your point.  The IBM-Java-118-SDK is
> downloadable without charge.  Yes, you are right you can not
> redistribute it.  Are you saying you will not pre req a tool which
> must be downloaded separately?

It's not Free Software(tm). :) Aside from the obvious conflict of
licenses, this presents a number of practical problems:

. I wouldn't be able to run Gnome on my Alpha if Java were required -
  binary-only means being tied to one platform.
. Having to download something from a separate site is not going to work
  for all the people who want to include Gnome in <insert random
  distribution here>. So "must download separately" part would be a
  problem even the license were otherwise workable.
. We would be making Gnome depend on something which we have no control
  over, can't fix or maintain, etc., which would screw Gnome over sooner
  or later.

The right solution (assuming Java is actually necessary) is to come up
with a free Java interpreter/JIT - fortunately other people are working on
that as a project outside of Gnome.

MHO,
-- Elliot
DEAR IRS, Please cancel my subscription.