FAQ should address why LP is not yet free software

[Matthew East]

"Why isn't Launchpad free software" is a really common question which comes up on #launchpad and elsewhere, especially in the support forums/mailing lists of the Ubuntu project.

Can an answer to this be added to the faq at https://launchpad.net/faq ?

At the moment that page only addresses the question of *whether* LP is free software, rather than *why* it isn't.

See also bug 50699.

[Brad Bollenbach (bradb)]

mpt seems like the right guy to clarify the wording, to focus as much on the "why" as the "what".

[Matthew East (mdke)]

Any progress on this? As far as I can see this question is about the most frequently asked one on LP. Also, to a certain extent, I believe that there is an obligation to state a clear answer to this question, to all those free software projects using LP.

[Matthew East (mdke)]

I've now found a relatively official sounding explanation of "why", on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MeetingLogs/OpenWeek_UsingLaunchpad:

As of today, Launchpad is not free software. there are a number of reasons for this. I'll outline the ones which I consider the most relevant:

            - launchpad is essentially a centralized service. without debating the merits or disadvantages of a centralized service, I'd like to point out that one of the concerns with releasing Launchpad source code is that a number of different launchpads would pop up with a federated system of launchpad the sort of problems we are trying to solve become different and to an extent more complicated

            - launchpad is non-trivial to contribute to. we have and will offer NDAs to people willing to assist us in working with the code, but we know that there's a big learning curve and that people are less motivated to work on something for which they will not be able to roll out on their own. we have a pretty serious code review, QA and rollout process (which you can witness on #launchpad) which is not too inviting for people who are interested in making a short one-off contribution. if you are interested, please mail me (kiko at canonical.com) at any time and I'll talk about the process for getting code access. I'd love to have community people come in and help out -- we have limited resources and this is not a small application.

            - launchpad is non-trivial to /run/. we have about six core servers that are used for day-to-day operations, and something like 10 or 12 that are used for the services which we call upon to collect data. running a similar site would be anon-trivial production exercise, and the code and documentation have not been written to make any of this easily deployable. there are over 40 moving parts that need to be run independently (last I counted at least, and I was depressed at the result!) so it's not a small thing.

Please add this to the FAQ.

[Matthew East (mdke)]

Hi,

Can this bug get some kind of response? I'm quite sure it's not difficult to fix, and it should have a higher priority than "low" given the frequency that this question comes up on #launchpad. It's come up this weekend twice at least.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

I'm fixing this now.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Fixed in RF 4365.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Re-fixed in RF 4407.

[Matthew East (mdke)]

Thanks Matthew.