Free & Non-Free Documentation

Guylhem writes "After the problems the LDP had with Debian rules, it seems clear we need an organization which would for example sort documentation between free (as "libre" or "freedom") and non free. After some discussions with people from the GNU project and the FSF, we came to the conclusion no such project already existed. I am please to announce that I am now starting the GNU Writing Movement with help from the GNU project. We will provide links to existing free documents, with a possibility to rate the documentation quality. The project is not competing with existing documentation project such as the LDP or GDP. It will complement them, both by serving somewhat as a meta-project for free software documentation, to provide help to authors willing to replace their FAQ or HOWTO will a full Guide on a specific topic, and to develop brand-new book-length material on many topics. " If you can't find a home for your documentation at an existing documentation project, and you agree with the philosophy of the GNU project, we can help you. Volunteers are welcome for the first phase of the project - cataloging existing free software documentation, rating it, and determining TODO lists for what needs to be documented.

Comments

Leave the politics out of it.

[Starship Trooper]

All this bickering over licence is ludicrously counterproductive. Licences don't sue people, people do. I hardly think the writer of a GPL piece of software would care what you do with the accompanying documentation, and it is baffling to me why the Debian nuts think documentation needs to be under its own special licence instead of using the GPL along with the software it documents. The reason I switched to open-source software was to get away from all the stupid EULA politics and policing of the traditional software world. I hate to see this pigheadedness seep into the open-source world.

Writing documentation is an incredibly difficult task, and few people do it well; to throw out an incredibly useful and well-written resource simply because of a miniscule licencing technicality is both horribly naïve and terribly anal behaviour. How does this guy think he'll be able to rewrite, say, all the Linux man pages without (a) having the original manpages as a reference and (b) quite possibly not being anywhere near as good a documentor as the original Linux Documentation Project? Open-source documentation is scarce and hard to come by as it is, why does Debian feel the need to exacerbate this shortcoming even further?

Fantastic...

[pongo000]

Now we have three open-source/free software doc projects: The featured project, LDP, and OSWG. So much wasted effort by so many people who could do God only knows what if they were to combine their talents, rather than taking their ball and running home at ever little perceived slight.

No, this isn't a troll, just an expression of frustration from someone who simply sees the fragmentation of open-source/free software as a Very Bad Thing. Those who promote this type of behavior (including the submitter) are doing a disservice to the open-source/free software community, as well as throwing up unnecessary barriers to those who would like to be part of the action but simply do not have the time or the patience to deal with all the in-fighting.