[aur-general] Moving noip from [community] to AUR

[Alexander Rødseth]

Hi Ido,


2014-08-02 17:41 GMT+02:00 Ido Rosen <ido at kernel.org>:
> The noip client is GPL licensed F/OSS software (it's right there in
> the COPYING file in the tarball).  Just because it connects to a
> commercial service does not mean it deserves to be removed from the
> official package repository.  Take, for example, various GMail
> clients, Chromium (re:Google Sync and various google services),
> various AWS/EC2/S3 clients/libraries in [extra]/[community], etc.

There were many reasons for moving noip from [community] to AUR. Not
being open source was just one of many reasons, while you here present
it as the sole reason, which is incorrect. Also keep in mind that TUs
are not bound by rules regarding open source / commercial software, so
ultimately, this does not matter.


> Additionally, while I don't use noip, some users want choices.

The same users can still install noip from AUR or from the downloads
provided by upstream.


> Would you remove vim just because emacs exists?  You should not remove it on
> the grounds that there are alternatives.  (Let's not make judgments on
> which is better - you wouldn't want to start a vim vs emacs debate
> here.)

I think both vim and emacs qualifies, as opposed to noip. They are
both popular (would result in many votes on AUR if they were not
official packages), they are open source (which is not a requirement,
but a plus) and they do not exist only to direct a stream of users and
money toward a single company (also not a requirement, but a plus).
They also offer pretty unique approaches to text editing (or did, when
they were first released), as opposed to noip that does not offer a
unique approach to dynamic IP adresses. (Having a unique or
groundbreaking approach is also not a requirement, but a plus in my
book). In addition to this, just by being a client that needs to
connect to a commercial service (even though there is a repeatable 30
day free trial), it is not at all comparable to a standalone
application like an editor.


If you are looking for a single official reason for why noip was moved
from [community] to AUR, the answer is "because an Arch Linux TU/dev
did it". If you are interested in how I personally judged this
particular situation, you may ask me why (as has been done in personal
emails) and I may be kind enough to try to give a lengthy and honest
answer (as I did), but I am not required to do so.

And don't write "do not do this".


-- 
Regards,
Alexander Rødseth / xyproto