corepkg - a new core package and updates manager

[ixbrian]

CaptBill, I suggest you re-read the whole thread.

What you really mean to say is 'read between the lines' concerning what is to be considered 'lawful use'...

Seems a 'yes' or 'no' would be nice concerning legal matters before investing time and energy, reading, re-reading and reading again. Could have swore I read 'free to use'.

I certainly won't fault anyone because I 'see' the political hot potato ,'TinyCore' ,for what it is. How am I to judge what I don't know?

So all I will do is express my exasperation with the whole online legality quandary that abounds. No different than Windows, really. Actually, Windows seems the lesser offender because it is not 'sold' as free when it's not really 'free', like Gpl seems to be.

I spent a couple hours this morning trying to figure out how to be sure my Windows wasn't trying me a 'pirate', and now I can't figure out if Gpl is doing the same or could potentially.

Rather fair question that I know is hard to answer so I leave it there

Thank you all

The GPL allows you to use the software for free.   The GPL has requirements if you want to distribute software - but the thing to keep in mind is that these requirements are there to ensure people you distribute the software to have the same rights that you have.   

If you would like to better understand why the GPL was written the way it was, I would recommend you read the book "Free Software, Free Society"  which is available online:  http://www.gnu.org/doc/fsfs-ii-2.pdf

[CaptBill]

I read in the first sentence that I need to BUY this book, so I better not read it or I will be in violation of the law apparently.

I am trying to set up my computer for a cross/platform  development environment which requires a highly flexible repo/package management environment. And choose TinyCore on good faith in the Gpl license , and not needing or wanting to become a lawyer. I don't need to. I really don't. I can just write my software and instruct others to download TinyCore themselves and they can say my egg came before your chicken and be done with that. But that would frankly be more 'rude' to all the hard work of the TinyCore team...but still not as rude as you causing me to be a lawbreaker when I am not.

All I ask for is strait/honest dealings which seems a moving target with the Gpl. It is my computer and code therefore my responsibilty to know. If it means being a jerk to be legal that is a shame is all.

[Jason W]

Tinycore and it's community did not create the terms of the GPL, but rather we have to abide by it, whether we see it as ideal or not.

So please don't blame Tinycore for the GPL, or the BSD, or the Mozilla License, etc, etc, or any other license that is abided by in our repo. 

[Rich]

Hi CaptBill

I read in the first sentence that I need to BUY this book, so I better not read it or I will be in violation of the law apparently.

I'm afraid you took that out of context, that was part of a book review.
This is from page four of the book:

Copyright c
 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted
worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is
preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations
of this book from the original English into another language provided
the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation
and the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on
all copies.

You are free to read it and give it away.

Rather than complain, if there is something you wish to do but are unsure of the legality, ask a
question.

[CaptBill]

Tinycore and it's community did not create the terms of the GPL, but rather we have to abide by it, whether we see it as ideal or not.

So please don't blame Tinycore for the GPL, or the BSD, or the Mozilla License, etc, etc, or any other license that is abided by in our repo.

Certainly not. My aggravation is toward the Gpl et al. Which means to play it safe with the law means I now cannot even seed a Torrent for fear of breaking the contract, when I am more than willing to chip in and help when it is only fair and right that I do so.

I guess your hands are tied because all the repo apps are liscensed separately.

[Jason W]

Exactly, our hands are tied to whatever license that upstream source dictates.  And like mentioned, the GPL is not an easy one to be in compliance with.

[Jason W]

Like with libdvdcss, I would love to provide an extension for it, or to at least for someone to be able to upload one to the repo to make it simple for those who would like to watch their legally purchased DVD's.  But the license and legal requirements dictate otherwise.    We just have to abide, since we will respect upstream license requirements, even if we personally disagree.

[CaptBill]

Like with libdvdcss, I would love to provide an extension for it, or to at least for someone to be able to upload one to the repo to make it simple for those who would like to watch their legally purchased DVD's.  But the license and legal requirements dictate otherwise.    We just have to abide, since we will respect upstream license requirements, even if we personally disagree.

This is why it is crucial that there is a personal repo (PPR) with bi-directional qualities. Would be perfect if we could 'save to repo' as easily as saving a file in a file manager. What is not available in the main repo we can simply download, prepare into a tcz and save to our PPR, freeing the TinyCore team from these issues. Just means enabling a easy way for things into as well as out of the repo for us end-users.

In fact a PPR seems even better than a standard file manager as an all around file management practice. And not just for apps but everything...apps, folders, folders/files in iso's/vhd's ...next is packages (collections of all previous).

This would be a feature unlike any other repo and is a perfect fit for TinyCore.

Essentially then the repo would serve as a powerful middle tier between the OS and the file system, rendering a much more manageable scenario.

I have been planning on doing it via vsFtpd server, but like the SqlLite approach even better. I just gotta have it in a cross platform development system. Would help out immensely in all kinds of ways.

Thanks again to the team for all your great work thus far. TinyCore truly is a world class engineering marvel for sure regardless.

[martin]

For those who are interested, and the many who privately contacted me with words of support and encouragement, the latest code is now finally and fully released as GPL v2 at github:
https://github.com/markerr/core-pkg-man

No I am not back to contribute again to the Tiny Core Linux project, I am just releasing full sources and announcing it here because so many people were interested in it. I will still maintain it upon request though. It's better to have it out in the open now than to have it sit and rot on my hard drive not being used.