BOINC

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Mzee
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Joined: 07/10/2013

I just tried to install BOINC on my system but it stopped due to unresolved dependencies. Some research showed my that BOINC actually is not meant to be installed in Trisquel. [1]
I would like to propose to whitelist this package as the possibility to run proprietary apps from within this software doesn't suffice to block it IMHO.
The package itself is free!

[1]: https://trisquel.info/en/issues/5658#comment-38418

Michał Masłowski

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Joined: 05/15/2010

It literally is sufficient to block it, see
https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html#license-rules,
the paragraph starting with "A free system distribution must not steer
users towards obtaining any nonfree information for practical use".

I believe we shouldn't change that it's safe to assume that software
included in Trisquel or recommended by it is free.

Mzee
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Joined: 07/10/2013

Hum... let my put it this way by asking some quite polemic questions: Couldn't a webbrowser be used to download non-free software? Should we therefore blacklist all webbrowsers?

Michał Masłowski

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Does the browser recommend this nonfree software specifically, by
e.g. having an addon repository listing it? We do blacklist and modify
browsers with this feature. If I understand this correctly, BOINC has a
similar feature (I haven't used it for several years, I don't remember
what it did).

Another similar issue: we have apt and you can use it with repos
containing nonfree software, while there is no recommendation/reference
to them in Trisquel.

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

I have never used BOINC. Does it really *recommend* proprietary software? The description of the issue does not tell that:
BOINC is a middleware that manages the project apps for various distributed computing apps. Apparently the vast majority of the apps are proprietary.

In the first comment, SirGrant wrote:
Some projects are free software like seti and milkeyway

Then, in my opinion, I think BOINC should be in Trisquel's repository. The analogy with the Web browser would be: even if most of the Web is proprietary Javascript, Trisquel must distribute a browser for the rest of the Web.

Mzee
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Joined: 07/10/2013

btw: Boinc is even listed by the free software directory:
http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Boinc

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

I edited the entry to point out this problem. Now we only have to wait for somebody to approve my edit.

It's also a good question whether boinc should be listed at all...

BlinkingArrow

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Well, I'd imagine the problem is that you really don't know what's running on your computer at that point. You sign up for the projects, but I don't know of a way to investigate what the computer is actually calculating. It is possible to install it, however.

Mzee
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Joined: 07/10/2013

@MagicBanana: That's my point!
@lembas: Unfortunately, I don't know of any place where you can get the source code for the World Community Grid from, but they state the following on their website:
"
World Community Grid is making technology available only to public and not-for-profit organizations to use in humanitarian research that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of the computer infrastructure required in the absence of a public grid. As part of our commitment to advancing human welfare, all results will be in the public domain and made public to the global research community." [1]

[1]: https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewAboutUs.do

lembas
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That's of course good but if the software isn't free, it can't be included in Trisquel.

Magic Banana

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BOINC is free software (distributed under the terms of the GNU LGPL). It can be used to only run free software or not (the user chooses the project she wants her computer to work on).

I believe my analogy with Abrowser (free software), which can run (or not) proprietary Javascript, is valid. If you want another one, there is the ScummVM precedent. This virtual machine "is almost entirely used for the purpose of running proprietary software" (according to the original description of the issue) and yet still is in Trisquel 6.0's repository because it is free software and can be used to run free software games.

andermetalsh
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Joined: 01/04/2013

SCUMMVM does not "run" propietary software at all. It does exactly the opossite: It works like a free engine replacement for propietary adventure games.

You can delete (most of) the old DOS game binaries safely. SCUMMVM won't run those at all.

After all, you are just "playing" some copyrighted game data as if you were playing a movie.

So if I play MYST under SCUMMVM I am still running libre software. And that's pretty nice.

Don't know about BOINC and its related grid based research projects , but if it downloads external stuff, you should take a bit of care.

Mzee
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Joined: 07/10/2013

Well, I did some research and found the following FLOSS projects running with BOINC:
1.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI@home
2.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkyway@home
3.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeHAL
4.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BURP

Unfortunately "World Community Grid" really doesn't seem to be FLOSS and thus can't be listed above but I really hope that the short list above is reason enough to include BOINC into the Trisquel repositories.

Additionally, I'm very sure that there are even more FLOSS projects running with BOINC but I couldn't find them yet because I was only checking for it using Wikipedia.