"user friendliest" Linux distro

[cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org]

> On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 07:50:27 -0500
> cbbrowne-HInyCGIudOg at public.gmane.org disseminated the following:
> 
> > >     The basic Mandrake distribution is released under free licences,
> > >     as defined by the FSF; they are not necessarily all GPL. There is
> > >     also the "contrib" section which may be under slightly less free
> > >     licences.
> > 
> > And, since neither the 'base' nor the 'contrib' sections represent
> > software licensed exclusively under the GPL, this means that the
> > distribution is "fully GPL" in what sense?
> 
> In the sense that the actual ISO's do not come with non-free
> software. It is up to the user whether they want to incorporate
> non-GPL or otherwise 'differentl y licensed' software in their setup,
> namely by adding Contrib or PLF sources.  AFAIK, no software would
> make it into the Main package sources that was not GPL'd.

Nonsense.  Your "AFAIK" is _wrong_.  There are numerous software
packages that are not licensed under the GPL.

- Apache is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Perl is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Python is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- PHP is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- PostgreSQL is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Postfix is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Sendmail is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- OpenSSH is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Bind is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- GTK is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- Mozilla is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.
- XFree86 is not "GPL'd", but is included in the main software packages.

> Kind of similar to the way Debian gives you that choice during install
> (at le ast it did last time I did a Debian install...that was awhile
> ago).

No, the makers of Debian do not claim to have made something "fully GPL"
in any sense.  The Debian Project requires that all of the software in
"main" conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, which is not the
same thing.
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