parrotsec main repository free software?

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tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/pool/
Can you tell if all software in the repository is free software? Thank you.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

Click on the link and you will see a directory named "non-free" and another one named "non-free-firmware": the administrators of the repository affirm it is non-free.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

https://deb.parrot.sh/parrot/pool/main/
The question is if the main repository only
contains free software?

andyprough
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Joined: 02/12/2015

I don't know if this is a comprehensive list of non-free packages, but this list claims to be from about 2023 from the FSF:
https://libreplanet.org/wiki/List_of_software_that_does_not_respect_the_Free_System_Distribution_Guidelines#apt

I used this list while working on a hybrid version of Trisquel+Debian a few months ago, and blacklisted the packages that were in the Debian main repo that were on this FSF non-free list. The packages I blacklisted in the Debian main repo included:
chromium ace afio aptix blobandconquer blobwars command-not-found debian-installer debian-reference hplip iwlwifi jcadencii konqueror liferea mame mpc musescore ndiswrapper rman simutrans starfighter viruskiller

I did not look for all of these in the Parrotsec main repo, but I did find chromium, mame, mpc, musescore in the main repo, and I did not see ndiswrapper. But again, my review was not comprehensive. Do you know how to blacklist Debian-based distro packages by using apt pinning? If not, I could write up the steps.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

> could write up the steps

Yes.

jxself
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Joined: 09/13/2010

Any distro can be "free" if we only look at a subset of packages - e.g., reduce "main" to 5 free ones and voilà, every distro qualifies. But obviously, the full distro should be evaluated, not just a handpicked subset. And so Magic Banana has shown us the answer.

Zoma
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Joined: 11/05/2024

Some distros are harder to use as libre then others though. Debian ones are pretty easy to use that way usually.

But try to do that with archlinux, or one that has no policy of separation... then its considerably harder.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

> full distro should be evaluated

In this case it is not about free software abstractions but
about verifying you do not get non free software on your computer
about a particular gnulinux system.