ESC meeting minutes: 2024-10-31

[Ilmari Lauhakangas]

On 10.11.2024 18.07, Andreas Mantke wrote:
> Am 31.10.24 um 19:07 schrieb Thorsten Behrens:
>> (...)
>> * Feature locking (Andreas)
>>    +<https://gerrit.libreoffice.org/c/core/+/174865> "Remove blocking functions feature from core"
>>    + re-visit from last week - any new views?
>>    + Heiko: having a 'freemium' label in the code - is not ideal. but more a question
>>      of labelling stuff, rather than technically wrong. And not affecting the desktop
>>      version anyway
>>    + Ilmari: but Andreas is not complaining about the label, but about the feature
>>    + Hossein: perhaps this can be a compile-time option instead?
>>    + Michael W.: unclear if that resolves it for Andreas
>>    + Ilmari: does not see the point either
>>    + Cloph: sees no prob here, either - several other places with 'locks' already in
>>    + AI thorsten conclude this from the side of the ESC, leave comment in the patch
> 
> 
> after some further thoughts on the process I find it very disturbing 
> that the ESC made its decision (and discussion) without even looking at 
> the 'freemiumDenyList' (or its renamed version / file). Because we are 
> talking about Free Software / FOSS it should be necessary to look first 
> on the facts/reasons for the blocking/locking function. But that is only 
> really possible if you know the list of denied features.

No, we are talking about *the deployment of FOSS* specifically. 
Deployers are free to apply whatever freemium restrictions they want. 
You may personally find it tasteless that LibreOffice now makes this 
easier, but that is no reason to spend any more time on this and 
certainly no reason to bring up CoI.

Ilmari