Stephan Peijnik sp@fsfe.org wrote:
The idea is to have a database containing information on which software package is a Free Software alternative for one or more proprietary software packages. [...] the name of the Free Software package, an URL to the project's page and a list of proprietary packages it can replace. [...]
I'm surprised that this comes from someone @fsfe.
In short: catalogues of non-free software are considered harmful.
I think this is a project that will present free software as a poor relation whenever the non-free software is better-known, because two software packages are almost never identical. That does not always mean that one is better than the other - they may just do things in different ways and it may frustrate users who knew the legacy proprietary package when they have to relearn.
It is not that relearning is frustrating, but that unexpected relearning is frustrating. A list of non-free-software and free software "equivalents" will probably create a false expectation that no learning will be needed if you knew the legacy software listed. I have tried it a few times in the past and now think it should be avoided. Please, learn from my mistakes.
I don't see how this project helps free software:
1. If the non-free software is better-known than the free software, it seems better to promote the free software independently of it instead of spending effort putting it into this catalogue. Adding it to this catalogue cannot itself make it better-known than the non-free one.
2. If the free software is better-known, adding it to this catalogue would enable people who have tried it to find proprietary alternatives.
Instead, could you list common file extensions or MIME types and list the applications which can open them? A free software filext.com.
Could this be shared with mailcap-like files? (Do gnome and kde still use them? GNUstep has NSMIMETypes.)
Finally, I don't see the point of listing drivers or plugins by their non-free equivalents instead of just by the hardware device (drivers) or the file type (plugins).
Hope that starts some discussion,