[tex-live] Problem with pax.win32

Philip Taylor P.Taylor at Rhul.Ac.Uk
Sun Mar 30 19:43:18 CEST 2014



Reinhard Kotucha wrote:

> We considered Active Perl in 2007 already and came to the conclusion
> that its license is much too restrictive for TeX Live.
>
> Not only distribution is problematic, there are severe restictions
> on usage, especially in commercial environments.  I've installed TeX
> Live on a server at work, hence the Active State license is
> completely inacceptable.

Could the installer not ask "Is this is personal, academic, commercial
or other installation ?", and proceed accordingly ?

> Since Siep compiled Perl herself, the Perl shipped with TeX Live is
> under GPL.  This is very important.  I've been using TeX Live at
> work for many years and it's a requirement that I can use it without
> any restrictions and that I don't have to worry about licenses.
>
> I don't see any advantages in a replacement.

Surely the advantages are manifest ? If the replacement were a full
Perl that could execute all the Perl scripts included as standard
in a TeX Live distribution, would that not be of enormous benefit
to TeX Live users whose operating system does not of itself include
a full Perl distribution ?

However, before proceeding any further with this line of argument,
let us also consider Martin's comment :

Martin Schröder wrote:> 2014-03-30 16:56 GMT+02:00 Robin Fairbairns

> OTOH we only want free software on the DVDs.

If the content of TeX Live is dictated, even in part, by overtly
political considerations such as the above, then any further argument
on a more rational basis will be a complete and utter waste of time,
and I shall therefore say no more on this topic.

Philip Taylor




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