Guidelines for creating a 3rd-party distributions...

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forart
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Guidelines for creating a 3rd-party distributions...

Post by forart »

I grabbed the idea from Haiku, and i think it could be a good for future distros...
Guidelines for Creating a Haiku Distribution wrote:
Haiku distributions must comply to the following set of guidelines. Haiku Inc. reserves the right to change these guidelines in the future.

Naming, Trademarks, and Logo

* The trademark "Haiku" may not be used in your distribution's name. Choose a distinctive name in order to avoid potential confusion with the official Haiku distribution.
* You are not allowed to use the official Haiku trademarks or logo.
* You may use the official Haiku icons and artwork.

Compatibility

Distributions that comply to the following compatibility guidelines are allowed to use the "Haiku Compatible" logo which will become available when we release our base distribution:

* You must not change or extend the API of the Haiku system libraries in any way.
* You should not change, move, or rename any of the files and folders that are part of the base distribution's "beos" folder without good reason. Use the "common" folder for customizations whenever possible.
* Provide a version of AboutHaiku that identifies your distribution and contains a disclaimer as described in this document.

Disclaimer

Please include the following disclaimers in a conspicuous place in your website, your AboutHaiku version, and the documentation of your distribution:

<DISTRO NAME> is based on Haiku, but it is not the official distribution from the Haiku Project. For information about the official Haiku project, please visit http://haiku-os.org.

<DISTRIBUTOR NAME> is not associated with the Haiku project. To obtain support for <DISTRO NAME>, please contact <DISTRO SUPPORT INFO>.

Development and Alpha Releases

For development and alpha releases please add this to the disclaimer:

This software is work in progress and has missing functionality as well as many (known and unknown) bugs. Use <DISTRO NAME> at your own risk.
(note: i don't know if we need such kind of guidelines -they use MIT license- but i like the idea)
»Forward Agency NPO
In progress we (always) trust.
Phobos
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Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:50 pm

Post by Phobos »

it is not just because they use an MIT license, the do this to keep an order in the distros naming, in such a way that everybody will know when they are downloading a distro or the normal version...

it's a nice idea (reminds me a little of the order that Sun keeps over opensolaris, so it doesn't become a coding disaster like linux xD), since this prevents confusions on the user as to where to go ask for help, troubleshooting, and that kind of things...

even if reactos (just like haiku) is not yet ready for distros, this kind of rules could be thought out even now... and see if something like that is helpful or something..

I personally like a lot the way haiku people work, and seems like a good idea
InFeRnODeMoN
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:39 pm

Post by InFeRnODeMoN »

The guidelines should differentiate a source-level fork (to which applies GPL) from a binary-level distro (to which apply the guidelines).
samwise52
Posts: 119
Joined: Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:14 pm

Post by samwise52 »

Several ppl have thought/discussed ideas about ReactOS distros, my suggestions are:

1. Build ReactOS from source and include Rosapps, Rostests, and the backgrounds module(reg hack needed).
2. Use it in qemu, vmware. You'll soon see that ReactOS is oh so close but still not there. Alpha status means its delicate still.
(I know you hear that everyday. Times will change!)

Help by making the future now! test the OS, fix bugs/report the problem. Talk to your friends about ReactOS, keeping in mind it's defects. Just having them visit www.reactos.org is a huge step. Donate. WE LOVE YOU FORUM TROLLS!!! KEEP IT REAL HOMIES!!!

Meet everyone live in #reactos
Can you picture what could be? So limitless and free.. in need of your help ReactOS 0.4
FSX
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:23 am

Post by FSX »

If you don't mind, I've hacked up a ReactOS version of that agreement. As you can see, it's virtually identical right now.
My 'Guidelines for Creating a ReactOS Distribution' wrote:ReactOS distributions must comply to the following set of guidelines. The ReactOS Foundation reserves the right to change these guidelines in the future.

Naming, Trademarks, and Logo

* The trademark "ReactOS" may not be used in your distribution's name. Choose a distinctive name in order to avoid potential confusion with the official ReactOS distribution.
* You are not allowed to use the official ReactOS trademarks or logo.
* You may use the official ReactOS icons and artwork.

Compatibility

Distributions that comply to the following compatibility guidelines are allowed to use the "ReactOS Compatible" logo which will become available when we release our base distribution:

* You must not change or extend the API of the ReactOS system libraries in any way.
* You should not change, move, or rename any of the files and folders that are part of the base distribution's root folder without good reason. For system customizations, please use the appropriate folder, or if none exists, create a new folder for that purpose.
* Provide a version of the System conrol panel's About tab that identifies your distribution and contains a disclaimer as described in this document.

Disclaimer

Please include the following disclaimers in a conspicuous place in your website, your System control panel About tab, and the documentation of your distribution:

<DISTRO NAME> is based on ReactOS, but it is not the official distribution from the RectOS Project. For information about the official ReactOS project, please visit http://www.reactos.org .

<DISTRIBUTOR NAME> is not associated with the ReactOS project. To obtain support for <DISTRO NAME>, please contact <DISTRO SUPPORT INFO>.

Development and Alpha Releases

For development and alpha releases please add this to the disclaimer:

This software is work in progress and has missing functionality as well as many (known and unknown) bugs. Use <DISTRO NAME> at your own risk.
Phalanx
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2004 12:42 am
Location: Australia

Post by Phalanx »

FSX wrote:If you don't mind, I've hacked up a ReactOS version of that agreement. As you can see, it's virtually identical right now.
My 'Guidelines for Creating a ReactOS Distribution' wrote:ReactOS distributions must comply to the following set of guidelines. The ReactOS Foundation reserves the right to change these guidelines in the future.

Naming, Trademarks, and Logo

* The trademark "ReactOS" may not be used in your distribution's name. Choose a distinctive name in order to avoid potential confusion with the official ReactOS distribution.
* You are not allowed to use the official ReactOS trademarks or logo.
* You may use the official ReactOS icons and artwork.

Compatibility

Distributions that comply to the following compatibility guidelines are allowed to use the "ReactOS Compatible" logo which will become available when we release our base distribution:

* You must not change or extend the API of the ReactOS system libraries in any way.
* You should not change, move, or rename any of the files and folders that are part of the base distribution's root folder without good reason. For system customizations, please use the appropriate folder, or if none exists, create a new folder for that purpose.
* Provide a version of the System conrol panel's About tab that identifies your distribution and contains a disclaimer as described in this document.

Disclaimer

Please include the following disclaimers in a conspicuous place in your website, your System control panel About tab, and the documentation of your distribution:

<DISTRO NAME> is based on ReactOS, but it is not the official distribution from the RectOS Project. For information about the official ReactOS project, please visit http://www.reactos.org .

<DISTRIBUTOR NAME> is not associated with the ReactOS project. To obtain support for <DISTRO NAME>, please contact <DISTRO SUPPORT INFO>.

Development and Alpha Releases

For development and alpha releases please add this to the disclaimer:

This software is work in progress and has missing functionality as well as many (known and unknown) bugs. Use <DISTRO NAME> at your own risk.
I have a problem with a few parts:
- "* You must not change or extend the API of the ReactOS system libraries in any way. "
You should be able to extend the API, that's part of it.

- "For development and alpha releases please add this to the disclaimer: "
This should also be the case for releases based one development releases. ReactOS should also have a way to protect itself, some agreement like the gnu for distros requiring the accepting of the licence etc in setup.

- "Please include the following disclaimers in a conspicuous place in your website, your System control panel About tab, and the documentation of your distribution: "
There is an official about api/frame in windows, this is where this belongs.

- "* You are not allowed to use the official ReactOS trademarks or logo. "
This should be changed to allow the distros to show the belong in the ReactOS code group, else they will have trouble just saying they are from ReactOS.
Howitzer86
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Post by Howitzer86 »

I suggest that alternative distributions be forbidden.
Phalanx
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Location: Australia

Post by Phalanx »

Howitzer86 wrote:I suggest that alternative distributions be forbidden.
I think your missing the whole points of the GPL Licence...
Howitzer86
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 8:06 am

Post by Howitzer86 »

Phalanx wrote:
Howitzer86 wrote:I suggest that alternative distributions be forbidden.
I think your missing the whole points of the GPL Licence...
The day I download an exe that tells me I need an API only available in a badly supported offshoot of Reactos is the day I say "I told you so".

Considering that that day is likely never to happen, I take back what I said earlier.

//

Also, I just realized that multiple distributions will help Reactos survive if attacked by Microsoft.
Reacter
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Location: Tornado Alley

Post by Reacter »

Right, so, everyone keep a backup version or too on their HDD...
More ReactOS, please!
InFeRnODeMoN
Posts: 52
Joined: Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:39 pm

Post by InFeRnODeMoN »

This would be a bad idea:
-ReactOS contains foreign code (Wine, etc).
-Allowing people to use the foreign code, bypassing the GPL wouldn't be very legal. (deal with it, GPL says so)
-Disallowing people certain stuff, like extending the API or moving files is ridiculous and also violates the GPL.
Switchboy
Posts: 97
Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:29 am

Post by Switchboy »

Mybe we shoud do it like this. If you break compatability with windows or reactOS you cannot use the name reactOS in your end product. This way everyone still can adapt as normal under GPL, but they beter be prepared to try and keep things compatible or they loose the right to call their OS a reactOS ditribution. This why I hope we can prevent ReactOS from undergoing the same fate that is slowly killing Linux and the main reason why Linux is never going to be the top desktop OS.

I would hate to see ReactOS go down that road. But I believe we can prevent it from happening. Since the main goal of this project is 1 on1 compatability with windows. In order to break compatability between react OS a en react OS b you must also break compatability with windows. And without compatability with windows there is really no point in this whole project/OS (other then that writing a whole OS is really cool). So I really don't think that compatability will be a big issue. :wink:
Z98
Release Engineer
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Post by Z98 »

Let's go over some of the assumptions here. You people assume the devs would allow anyone to use the ReactOS name in their distribution. Unlikely. We'd be more like Red Hat in protecting our trademark, making sure no one tries to use ReactOS in their name except perhaps to say they used our source code. I find it highly unlikely the devs would ever sanction or become patrons of any specific distro above another. Then there's the "more distros there are, the likelier MS will not take them all out." If ROS goes down, then anything depending on it will suddenly find itself on highly questionable legal ground. The GPL makes it so people can make as many distros as they want, but it does not pass on the right to use the name ReactOS.
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