Pianobar & Pandora
If I managed to get Pianobar to actually function properly and actually use it to listen to Pandora Radio am I violating the spirit of free software?
(the current version in the repositories is outdated by at least one generation and there is an error with the TLS handshake.)
In the meantime I'm enjoying libre.fm in Rhythmbox.
> If I managed to get Pianobar to actually function properly and actually use it to listen to Pandora Radio am I violating the spirit of free software?
If Pianobar is free software, why not? :-)
Of course there might be other issues, e.g. privacy. And it's a service, so your account could easily be terminated. But if it's just an entertainment service that might not matter.
I see nothing wrong with using free software to use a service that its maintainers evilly refuse to support on free systems. Just don't depend on it; suspect that, any day, it could stop working, just like watching videos on video sites using UnPlug or ViewTube.
Both good points, it's too bad Pandora keeps changing their authentication keys. Pianobar is such a great application but the trisquel repositories can't keep up with the updates. I'll have to hunt for a PPA.