[Nix-dev] Re: Proprietary fonts not installed by default

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello,

Eelco Dolstra <e.dolstra at tudelft.nl>
writes:

> My main concern is whether we have some decent-looking fonts in a default
> installation.  Without the Core fonts we only have Bitstream Vera and the GNU
> FreeFont (which may be enough - not sure).  I personally don't have major
> problems with the Core fonts license, given that it's a "leaf" dependency
> (nothing else depends on it, so it's easy to get rid of for users who want a
> fully free OS).

Debian without `non-free' does provide "decent-looking fonts" AFAICT, so
I'm sure it's possible to have nice free fonts.  At any rate, I think
it's important to have only free packages and data by default.  What's
your opinion?

A Debian tag search [0] for `made-of::font' yields (stripped from
irrelevant packages):

    * gsfonts-x11 -- Make Ghostscript fonts available to X11
    * konfont -- Public domain japanese fonts for KON2
    * tex-chess -- Chess fonts for TeX/LaTeX
    * tex-skak -- Chess fonts for TeX/LaTeX
    * ttf-rufscript -- handwriting-based font for Latin characters
    * ttf-unifont -- TrueType version of the GNU Unifont

And `x11::fonts':

    * gsfonts-x11 -- Make Ghostscript fonts available to X11
    * ttf-unifont -- TrueType version of the GNU Unifont
    * x-ttcidfont-conf -- TrueType and CID fonts configuration for X

There's also `ttf-bitstream-vera', `ttf-dejavu', `ttf-linux-libertine',
`ttf-sil-*' [1], and probably many others.

Other resources include the Free Font Manifesto [2], Ralf Lieven's
fonts [3], the Unifont.org Font Guide [4], the Open Font Library [5],
etc.

> It might be nice to have an option to disable the use of all non-free packages
> (such as the NVIDIA drivers).

Yes, that's what I meant to propose.

If we all agree on that, we can have a documented policy to (1) clearly
mark non-free packages as such, and (2) make sure they are not installed
by default.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Ludo'.

[0] http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/ssearch.html
[1] http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&keywords=ttf-sil
[2] http://www.designwritingresearch.org/free_fonts.html
[3] http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/
[4] http://www.unifont.org/fontguide/
[5] http://openfontlibrary.org/