Free Software Directory talk:Antifeatures

Categories

Suggested

• Adware – any software package that automatically renders advertisements in order to generate revenue for its author.
• Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS). Other terms which may refer to the same idea: Tethered, Nonfree Network Services
  • Tethered - Program depends on communication with a particular server, and is not very useful without that.
    • Stallman says: But maybe such programs should not be in the directory at all. Is there any reason to include them? Could you describe the examples?
    • If the front end is free back the back end isn't, and isn't otherwise useful, then we probably shouldn't include it - Donaldr3
• Support channels/places that suggest people to use non-free functional data (generally: software, but not always).
  • Example (fictional): A user asking for support on VLC due to some bug or impossibility to do something, and receiving a reply suggesting him to use some non-free software.
  • Exception would be: for testing or development of the free software, or some free/libre software replacement for such non-(free/libre) ones, as described at Is It Ever a Good Thing to Use a Nonfree Program?.
• Software known to have grave flaws – Software that fails to fully do the job that it says it does.
  • This was discussed on the mailing list. RMS argued against it, most notably by saying: "We don't judge whether a program is truly useful or not. Anyway, different users might judge a program differently in regard to its utility."
  • I'm not a fan either. It is also too broad. --IanK (talk)

F-Droid excluded categories

• Most categories in https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Antifeatures are not included in our antifeatures list
  • Nonfree Network Services
    • network services arent free or nonfree, so we would not use this tag. Consideration of service as a software substitute, saass is above. --IanK (talk)
    • "The term is not clearly defined. I think we most of the time were actually talking about the code aspect of it: Does an app rely on a networking service that is not (by our knowledge) run or easy to reproduce with free software. Sigh.. don't think that makes it any better. Maybe some examples help: Telegram requires interacting with a server which source code has not been released, so its NonFreeNet. On the other hand, serving html files from an MS IIS http server is not affected, because you can easily replace it with your favored one. -- Krt (talk) 08:56, 24 November 2016 (UTC) " - https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/Antifeature:NonFreeNet
  • Non free Dependencies
    • This kind of software would not work on a free gnu/linux distribution, so it would not be included in the directory. --IanK (talk)
  • Upstream Non-free
    • This refers to f-droid's own repository version. The FSD does not have a repository or host downloads, so it does not apply.

• F-droid categories without a consensus, still need discussion:
  • Non-Free Assets
    • Free_Software_Directory:Requirements says "The software program itself should not package any program-data, art assets loaded by the program, or software which is under a nonfree license. If art or data is available for the game under a nonfree license but not packaged directly with it, that is a different matter and one we should be more flexible about." So I think we might create this tag for software which promotes using nonfree art or program data but does not package it. --IanK (talk)
  • Tracking - This Antifeature is applied to apps that track you and/or report your activity to somewhere, either without your permission or by default (i.e. you'd have to actively seek out an option to disable it).

Bait and surrender, MySQL examples

Non-free software profit models

• • From an Open Source software providers perspective, there is the model of open core which includes a feature-limited version of the product and an open core version. The feature-limited version can be used widely; this approach is used by products like MySQL and Eucalyptus. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crippleware#Computer_software
• Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service (typically a digital offering or application such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but money (premium) is charged for proprietary features, functionality, or virtual goods. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium
  • MySQL and a company’s market relevance in the light of “free” and “freemium” revenue models - https://guests.blogactiv.eu/2009/11/25/mysql-and-a-companys-market-relevance-in-the-light-of-free-and-freemium-revenue-models/
• Open core is a business model (as pointed out by Ian K) for the monetization of commercially produced open source software. Coined by Andrew Lampitt in 2008,[1] the open core model primarily involves offering a "core" or feature-limited version of a software product as free and open-source software, while offering "commercial" versions or add-ons as proprietary software. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_core
  • Oracle's MySQL database software is dual-licensed under a proprietary license, and the GNU GPL; proprietary versions offer additional features and enterprise support plans - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_core#Examples

• Nginx: Comparison between Nginx and Nginx Plus. Note: The websites are different, but the Nginx project's actually links to the Nginx Plus edition whenever there is a new release of the Plus edition.
• NOLA: This proof requires non-free JavaScript in order to be seen. Go to the project's page, to "Download" and to any "Compare" button.
• Odoo/OpenERP: Comparison of the various editions.
• OrangeHRM: Comparison of OrangeHRM editions.
• VtigerCRM: Needs more investigation and clarification. This page evidences the availability of an "open source" edition. There is also this other page that, despite not evidencing the "open source" edition, shows differences between some of the currently available editions.

--Adfeno (talk) 16:32, 15 May 2016 (EDT)

I think this is an important criteria to consider because when these "premium"/"commercial" editions are better than the "open source"/"community" editions, or when they aren't free/libre, they still allow the proprietors to exercise unjust/unfair power over society.

We must also investigate ProcessMaker, because this page's HTML source evidences the existence of different editions.

There might be other entries to be investigated.

Besides, if you don't mind, I would like to apologize for making the Odoo entry. I created it because someone from Brazil blindly told me that it was free/libre software, and so I had to create the entry to see if that was true, then I saw Odoo being approved, and since the approval, I have recommended it at least two times (always referencing to the approved entry).

--Adfeno (talk) 10:27, 16 May 2016 (EDT)

Just for the record, for those wanting to change the requirements according to what is taken as consideration with this proposal: I spoke with contributors of the directory and some organizers of the meetings (Jgay participated on the debate), and we consider that these crippleware are somehow useful free/libre software (specially because a free software activist can make a parent project out of it), and so we came up with two alternatives that can be used instead of removing the entries. At least one of the following is recommended:

• Insert a message telling the viewer that the entry is about the free/libre edition of the software, and not about the non-free one, and that the free software movement doesn't recommend the non-free one. I, personally, suggest that this message is displayed with emphasis (like red boxes, with warning symbol and so on), but it's OK to have a simple text message (similar but longer than what the entry about Krita has).
• Instead of linking to the projects official page, resources, documentation, source code and so on: Link to a page from a free system distribution that provides such software. This avoids attracting people to the non-free functional data.

--Adfeno (talk) 09:23, 18 June 2016 (EDT)

Nonfree documentation

Rationale for specific project inclusion

Since these antifeatures are apparently simple flags to associate with the various projects, people can (and perhaps should) question why a project has been flagged. Is there no place organized to detail the flagging rationale? In the meantime, I will include the rationale for flagging some projects as having nonfree documentation here, if anyone is interested:

Anki Both www.ankiweb.net and www.ankisrs.net are CloudFlared without Tor whitelisting. The ankisrs.net site is where the user manual appears, and ankiweb.net is a place where users share databases that they have produced. The knowledgebase lives on a free website (anki.tenderapp.com), but so many answers there link back to www.ankisrs.net that it's also unusable to Tor users anyway. Not that it matters, the user manual is a quite essential piece to have free.

GNU Radio The www.gnuradio.org website is cloudflared without a Tor whitelist.

Tcl There is an index of Tcl documentation on www.tcl.tk/doc, which is itself free, but the most popular and official sources for documentation is the Tcl wiki (http://wiki.tcl.tk/), which is cloudflared without Tor whitelisting.

Wireshark The www.wireshark.org website is cloudflared without a Tor whitelist.