f-spot man page missing mono warning

[Lars Noodén]

The man page for f-spot is missing a warning that it is promoting proprietary MS technology. For it to function, Mono must be installed. The man page needs to warn about that.

[Koen (koen-beek)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This bug did not have a package associated with it, which is important for ensuring that it gets looked at by the proper developers. You can learn more about finding the right package at [WWW] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage . I have classified this bug as a bug in f-spot.

[Maia Everett (linneris)]

This is getting ridiculous.

F-Spot, by itself, doesn't "promote" anything.

Or do man pages for Eclipse and other Java software now need a warning saying that it's promoting proprietary Java technology?

I don't think it's a bug. Man pages are not a place for politics. If someone other than the original submitter disagrees, feel free to reopen.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

(Kozhev: Java is not proprietary and its mention is off topic. Please keep flamebait to yourself.)

Mono needs to be mentioned in the man page because the man page is about how the program works, key dependencies and licensing. Given the licensing issues with mono, mention of the dependency is a must. Licensing and technical info belong on the man page.

Given all the mono-related bugs,, this is a serious technical issue. And, the licensing concerns in mono are *still* unadressed and *still* highly controversial. If folks want to shoehorn proprietary technology into Linux, fine, that's what the multiverse repository is for. However, some have a legal (if not ethical) requirement to stay clean and avoid such politics, therefore such dependencies need to be identified in more than one place.

Further, knowing the dependency on mono means the decision can be made earlier. In order to use f-spot, the following NEW packages would be needed, amounting to 48.5 MB on the HD. That's a lot for one application. Sure one should see the mono libraries in the list below, but the man page is where one usually looks for a licensing and dependency overview:

  cli-common f-spot libart2.0-cil libflickrnet2.1.5-cil libgconf2.0-cil
  libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil libgnome2.0-cil libgnomecups1.0-1
  libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0
  libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgtk2.0-cil libgtkhtml2.0-cil libgtkhtml3.8-15
  libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo1.0-cil
  libmono-corlib1.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil libmono-data-tds1.0-cil
  libmono-data-tds2.0-cil libmono-security1.0-cil libmono-security2.0-cil
  libmono-sharpzip0.84-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil libmono-sqlite2.0-cil
  libmono-system-data1.0-cil libmono-system-data2.0-cil libmono-system-web1.0-cil
  libmono-system-web2.0-cil libmono-system1.0-cil libmono-system2.0-cil libmono0
  libmono1.0-cil libmono2.0-cil libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
  librsvg2.0-cil mono-common mono-gac mono-jit mono-runtime
0 upgraded, 45 newly installed, 0 to remove and 25 not upgraded.
Need to get 12.3MB of archives.
After this operation, 48.5MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

(Kozhev: don't claim politics to avoid providing technical and licensing info)

[Maia Everett (linneris)]

Mono is installed by default in Ubuntu and it's not going to be changed.

Also, Mono itself is free software. Nobody's trying to "shoehorn" anything. Just because Microsoft spreads FUD about some unknown patents doesn't mean we should remove perfectly functional software.

This bug, to me, sounds like an attempt to disrupt Ubuntu development to prove a point.

[Maia Everett (linneris)]

As for Java: there are still programs with a hard dependency on Sun's proprietary implementation, like netbeans. This doesn't mean we should add disclaimers to man pages.

[Lars Noodén (larsnooden)]

Mono is not added by default in Kubuntu, and the bug request is not about your good idea to remove mono from Ubuntu. So, please, Kozhev, just save your off-topic rhetoric for the forums.

This is a simple request to add one line to a man page.

Is there an official debdiff guide for Ubuntu?

[Maia Everett (linneris)]

First of all, please resort from personal attacks. This is not "off-topic", but concerns about the validity of this bug.

GNOME libraries are also not installed by default in Kubuntu, neither are KDE libraries in Ubuntu. Going by the logic behind this bug, should every (for instance) GNOME program have a disclaimer in its manpage: "This program depends on libgnome, gconf, etc."?

[Maia Everett (linneris)]

Closing again per IRC discussion with Sebastian Dröge.