[Qgis-psc] Use of free software, take #2 and resolutions page:

[Paolo Cavallini]

Hi all,
I have made the straightforward modifications, thanks Tim for the
suggestiones.
For a broader discussion on this important theme, better do it in the
next PSC meeting.
Cheers.

Il 12/04/20 10:14, Tim Sutton ha scritto:
> Hi Jürgen
> 
>> On 12 Apr 2020, at 00:29, Jürgen E. Fischer <jef at norbit.de
>> <mailto:jef at norbit.de>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Tim,
>>
>> On Sat, 11. Apr 2020 at 00:09:45 +0100, Tim Sutton wrote:
>>> Rationale: Free software should be the first choice for all the tools
>>> we use.
>>> We should choose proprietary alternatives only when it is proven that
>>> free
>>> software fails to provide a reasonable solution. The PSC should vote
>>> in case
>>> a proprietary solution is suggested.
>>>
>>> With
>>>
>>> Proposal: As a matter of policy when deploying software tools to
>>> manage the
>>> QGIS.org <http://QGIS.org> project, we should consider licensing,
>>> functionality, convenience,
>>> effort, cost, time, available volunteers, security, privacy, how much
>>> effort
>>> is required to maintain the solution. Given two solutions that appear
>>> satisfactory with regards to these requirements, one being FOSS and
>>> one being
>>> proprietary, we should  of make use of the FOSS solution in
>>> preference to the
>>> proprietary solution.
>>
>>> ---
>>
>>> Please vote here if you are OK with these proposed changes and I will be
>>> happy to submit a pull request.
>>
>> -1  I believe the point of the resolution is to emphasize that using free
>>    software should be the rule and using proprietary software should be an
>>    exception.
>>
>>    But I think "it is proven" is too strong as it suggests big effort
>>    and could be replaced with "we agree".
>>
>>    All other points and more are IMHO covered by "reasonable solution".
>>
>>    Also not sure if that mandatory PSC vote is required as that would also
>>    require voting in case there obviously is no free alternative to some
>>    proprietary tool we want to use.
>>
> 
> Thanks for your reply Jürgen!
> 
> Well the reason I raised this it that I don’t think we all share the
> same definition of what a ‘reasonable solution’ is - IMHO it is better
> to be explicit rather than implicit. I actually don’t think my proposed
> update to the motion goes far enough in terms of being explicit:
> 
> It would be reassuring to know that this is not a pre-cursor to a major
> disruption to the infrastructure of the project, where we land up
> running around spending a lot of time, project funds and effort trying
> to replace tools that already work for us with new things. And if that
> is the plan (as appears to be the case from Paolo’s list of replacement
> candidates) who will do the migrations to the new platform and manage
> the transition smoothly, and at what cost?
> 
> Another concern I have is what we consider acceptable FOSS licenses
> here. From prior discussions on this list there are different outlooks
> on what acceptable licenses are - will we accept BSD? MIT? GPL with
> amendments, dual licensed software? Hosted buy third party versus
> self-hosted? Hosted FOSS by third party with a cost (e.g. Loomio,
> Wordpress). 
> 
> For me the proposal is still half-baked until these things are all well
> defined. Let me stress finally that I have absolutely no objection to
> using FOSS for our infrastructure, I have objection to taking our
> project funds and energies and putting them into this migrating stuff
> over to FOSS when the current solution already works well for us,
> instead of using our time and funds for actually useful stuff like
> supporting bug fixes, getting QGIS in front of more users etc. So let’s
> make the plan clear, the responsibilities clear, the process
> non-disruptive, the licensing requirements as to what licenses and
> hosting arrangements clear, the cost implications clear, and then I am
> "on-team" too.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Tim
> 
> 
> 
>>
>> Jürgen
>>
>> -- 
>> Jürgen E. Fischer           norBIT GmbH             Tel.
>> +49-4931-918175-31
>> Dipl.-Inf. (FH)             Rheinstraße 13          Fax.
>> +49-4931-918175-50
>> Software Engineer           D-26506 Norden
>>            https://www.norbit.de
>> QGIS release manager (PSC)  Germany                    IRC: jef on
>> FreeNode
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> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---
> 
> *Tim Sutton*
> tim at qgis.org <mailto:tim at qgis.org>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Paolo Cavallini - QGIS.ORG Chair
www.faunalia.eu:
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