[Pkg-fonts-devel] Bug#699322: Bug#699322: status of liberation fonts 2.00.1 in Debian unstable?

[Jonas Smedegaard]

On the question of upgrading to 2.x or staying with 1,x:

Quoting Pravin Satpute (2016-08-16 13:28:12)
> On Tuesday 16 August 2016 04:26 PM, Fabian Greffrath wrote:
>>> any reasons not to upload 2.00.1-2 to unstable? #699322 mentions the
>>> missing Sans Narrow font, but I think it's still a worthwhile
>>> improvement as it is…
>> I agree that it might make sense to finally upload fonts-liberation 
>> 2.00.1 to unstable. The loss of the Sans Narrow variant can certainly 
>> be coped with, given how bad it is hinted and the overall better 
>> quality (and license) of the 2.x branch.
[...]
> Liberation 1.* are not equivalent to Croscore. Since Liberation 1.* 
> are manual bytecode hinting information.
> Liberation 2.* are equivalent to Croscore.

By above description (I haven't looked closely myself) I agree we should 
update to track 2.x branch.


On the new question of dropping, treating CrosCore as replacement:

>> However, I 'd like to know upstream's view on the general status of 
>> the liberation fonts first:
>>
>> @Pravin: What is the current upstream status of the liberation fonts 
>> package? The repository has not seen any activity for more than two 
>> years now. Are the liberation fonts considered obsolete and 
>> superseeded by the Croscore fonts (Arimo, Tinos and Cousine)?
[...]
> Only difference is, in Liberation fonts we are doing is more 
> opensource way, i.e. maintaining its source file and generating it 
> with our tools while Croscore is just ttf and mostly that is provided 
> by proprietary vendor.

That in itself sounds to me like we should certainly keep this project - 
and instead consider dropping CrosCore instead!

No, I don't really suggest to drop CrosCore: it has become a name, which 
has value for fonts.  Just want to emphasize that properly _developed_ 
fonts with proper sources available has _greater_ value than equally 
shaped commercially promoted but over-the-fence-developed fonts.


> Liberation 2.0 is still active project but somehow i am not able to 
> find time for it. But its in plan, so may be in next release in 3-6 
> months (or even sooner).

Take your time!  Our concern is not that you spew out new releases at a 
high enogh frequency - only that the project is not abandoned.


>> The latter are now packaged in Debian as part of src:fonts-noto and 
>> covered by the SIL Open Font License.
>>
>> So, what do you think, does it still make sense to maintain the 
>> liberation fonts in Debian or should we rather transition to the 
>> Croscore fonts instead?
> Differences are as above, so feel free to take decision :)

I say let's update - and keep it!


 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

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