[tex-live] TL 13 -- how many maintained installations are there?

[Winston Smith]

So far, the discussion has amused me, but now I must interlope.

> From: P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk

> > Joachim, don't worry.  Norbert already made clear that he will not
> > add such a "feature".
> 
> In which case we may safely conclude that the TeX Live project
> is a dictatorship rather than a collaborative effort, Reinhard.

Since when did it become acceptable to
a.) introduce phone-home mechanisms into open-source software, and
b.) defame the personal decision of a software maintainer against this
     as dictatorship, and
c.) accept surveillance and erode privacy (how many TeX-users will be
      aware of that new "feature" and know how to turn it off?) under the
      premise that surveillance is in place everywhere else (e.g. the phone
      example)?

Has it come to this that we must accept user tracking (and what was
suggested is nothing less than this) just because?

> When they accept that user suggestions are of as little interest to the
> developers of TeX Live

If any user has interest in the used software tracking his/her habits: There
are plenty of OSes/Software packages out there that do that.

And if this is really of interest for TeX users, one is free to macgyver a daemon
that tracks whenever TeX binaries are fired up, or include a small post-install
script in a custom rpm that phones home after installation. No need to infest
TeX main line with that.

The whole idea of phoning home goes against half a dozen principles
of open-source software. There are certain things you will never see in
good (!) open-source software. Phoning home is one of them.

> as they appear to be to the developers
> of Seamonkey.

Naming and shaming does  no-one any good.

- Winston

 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/attachments/20140416/068101e9/attachment.html>