GNU bug report logs - #52109
[PATCH] gnu: Add unrar-free.

Previous Next

Full log

Message #53 received at 52109 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Leo Famulari <leo <at> famulari.name>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 52109 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>,
 zimoun <zimon.toutoune <at> gmail.com>, Giovanni Biscuolo <g <at> xelera.eu>,
 kiasoc5 <kiasoc5 <at> disroot.org>, Foo Chuan Wei <chuanwei.foo <at> hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [bug#52109] [PATCH] gnu: Add unrar-free.
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2023 18:07:14 -0500

On Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 09:29:09PM +0100, Liliana Marie Prikler wrote:
> Now, I hope I'm not exaggerating when I say that most computer users
> use libarchive-based (un)archiving tools already. [3]
> Having observed this, I see little meaning in having a frontend, which
> per its name promises to open archives that their existing tooling
> can't handle, only to then reveal that it was the existing tooling all
> along.  If it didn't have the name that suggested it was able to do
> that, no one would expect it to, and upon encountering an archive that
> libarchive can't handle, they could go "well, fuck those rar guys, I
> have better things to do", or they could try and figure out what's
> wrong and contribute a fix (not that a fix is easily contributed given
> the nature of this bug, but somewhere along their journey they'd notice
> that rar is proprietary garbage and not fault libarchive too hard for
> not handling it).  Because unrar-free does have a name that suggests
> it's able to unrar those things, however, they will inevitably feel
> wronged no matter what and rather think "well, fuck unrar-free, I want
> unrar-nonfree".

In order to understand your points better, I'd like to summarize them in
my own words. Please tell me if I get it wrong.

Your objections to the inclusion of this package are that:

1) We already have a package with equivalent functionality
2) The name of this package, unrar-free, might lead users to choose a
nonfree program due to similarity. Concretely, the nonfree program is
called "unrar".

Is that correct?

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.