Re: The FreeRDP fork

On 14 March 2011 09:11, Peter Åstrand <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> Well, Cendio has not agreed to this license change. If you think that all
>>> of
>>> our code has been replaced, why are Cendio developers still listed in the
>>> AUTHORS file? Assuming that the GIT version is the correct one...
>>
>> The plan from the beginning was to remove Cendio code.  Remember Peter
>> it is because of you that FreeRDP exists in the first place.
>
> No, I don't remember that. In fact, I haven't seen any motivation why the
> FreeRDP project was created in the first place. I've looked at
> http://www.freerdp.com but I don't see any background information there
> either. IMHO, if you were unhappy about any aspect of the rdesktop project,
> I think it would have been much better to discuss this *before* creating a
> fork. I also fail to understand why it was an explicit goal to "remove
> Cendio code".
>
>
>> We have made some amazing progress in FreeRDP.  We have some of the
>> hardest working, talented developers I've ever worked with.
>
> Sad that you/they do not want to contribute to rdesktop then. With two
> projects, I think we are duplicating efforts. In general, unless the goal of
> two projects are fundamentally different, I think you can achieve more by
> working together.
>
> The license question could be such an issue, but again, I haven't seen the
> motivation. Things would have been much clearer if FreeRDP had announced
> itself with an Open Letter or something like that, like we did with
> TigerVNC: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.tight-vnc.general/8610/
>
>
>> I'm the longest running contributors to open source RDP software via
>> rdesktop, xrdp, and FreeRDP.  From my experience, this is a necessary
>> change.  The GPL does not work well in the situations an RDP client needs to
>> run.  The rdesktop plugins design is one example, running FreeRDP as a web
>> browser plugin is another.  The OpenSSL exception is another. The list goes
>> on and on.
>>
>> I want to develop the best RDP client possible and the GPL does not allow
>> that.
>
> I don't agree. Wrt plugins, there's really no reason why these cannot run
> out of process. Running native code such as RDP clients as browser plugins
> is IMHO generally a bad idea, but I don't think that GPL would prevent this.
> Compare with VLC, which is also GPL. We can also deal with OpenSSL. I mean,
> this is not a new problem. There are tons of GPL code out there that needs
> encryption. This can be handled. Saying that "we cannot use GPL because we
> need encryption" seems strange to me.
>
>
> I think that GPL is the best license for a rdesktop-like project. rdesktop
> unfortunately has a history where many people and organizations are using
> the code, but very few give something back. Many terminal vendors, for
> example IGEL, and shipping a heavily modifed version of rdesktop. They are
> not contributing these changes back to the rdesktop project, but due to the
> GPL license, end users *are* able to retrieve the source and modifications.
> With an Apache-style license, the development done by such vendors will
> never be released and thus will never reach the upstream / Open Source
> project. I fail to see how helps you to "develop the best RDP client
> possible". Instead, you will end up with not just one but multiple more or
> less incompatible forks, one from every vendor.
>
>
> Rgds, ---
> Peter Åstrand           ThinLinc Chief Developer
> Cendio AB               http://www.cendio.com
> Wallenbergs gata 4
> 583 30 Linköping        Phone: +46-13-21 46 00
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Hello,

I do not use rdesktop or freerdp clients, but closely follow
development change log of both projects.

freerdp project was actually announced in rdesktop-devel list:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.network.rdesktop.devel/3226

and the reason cleanly states: "rdesktop not being fixed up quick enough"

I saw patches laying in rdesktop bugzilla for a while and they were
not integrated into rdesktop. On the other hand, if there is a new
implementation of existing feature in rdesktop, how it might be tested
and integrated into rdesktop by community? For example freerdp project
provides new way of keyboard handling.

>From observer point of view, I see that rdesktop features are being
decided by only Cendio and not the community. Sorry, may be I am
wrong, but that is an impression I've got and glad that freerdp
project exists and is rapidly growing.

Gregory Smirnov,
cross-platform RDP Clients developer

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