[Fsf-Debian] rar/unrar

[Paul van der Vlis]

Op 17-10-12 22:42, Bryan Quigley schreef:
> Hi All,
> 
> Continuing my attempt to find non-free programs that we no longer need
> unrar/rar came to my attention.   It's some of the most popular
> installed non-free packages in both Debian [1
> <http://popcon.debian.org/non-free/by_inst>] and Ubuntu [2
> <http://popcon.ubuntu.com/restricted/by_inst>].  And apparently there is
> a free software program unar [3
> <http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/unar>] that can replace the unrar part.
> 
> Distributing the rar program, which is shareware (40 days need to
> register/buy), only helps people keep using the rar compression file
> format.  This isn't one of those cases where we have to sacrifice
> anything, 7z (according to filetype:7z google search results) is more
> popular and has better compression in all useful cases today [4
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR#Comparison_to_other_compression_algorithms>]. 
> 
> I think it makes sense to remove both the unrar and rar nonfree programs
> from the nonfree repo in either Wheezy or Wheezy+1.  If not, we should
> investigate why so many users are installing unrar/rar.  

I think unrar is often installed because for the scanning of virusses in
mailservers. I think it's possible that many people don't know about unar.

> Unrar has a
> number of Dependants that pull it in.  Many of them I don't understand
> why (Evince, Okular). 

I don't understand it too. But it are suggestions and not dependencies.
Maybe we should make no suggestions to non-free packages anymore.

With regards,
Paul.



-- 
Paul van der Vlis Linux systeembeheer, Groningen
http://www.vandervlis.nl