Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Project

[Jason Self]

andrew@lewman.com wrote ..
> I suspect this is a non-free SaaS implementation. I can easily run mailing
> lists using free software, why do I want someone else to do it for me?

There may be a variety of reasons why someone wants a hosted email solution 
instead of DIY.

The SaaS issue is about doing your own computing in someone else's machine. 

Now, using a hosted mailing lists could bring up other issues, like privacy, 
depending on how public the specific mailing list is supposed to be, but 
mailing 
lists don't raise the SaaS issue because email (and therefore mailing lists) 
are 
about communication with other people. That's not something you can do solely 
by 
yourself.

So no: mailing lists aren't SaaS [1].

dotcommon@autistici.org wrote ..
> i have visited http://librelist.com/ and i had the same impact: a non-free
> SAAS implementation
> this was because i could not find neither any free software license
> (GPLv3?) specification about the mailing software run by librelist.com,
> nor
> any source code of the mailing software to download, nor any website free
> software license (AGPL?) specification...

The availability (or lack) source code definitely goes to the question of 
whether it's free software or not (and I hope it is, because otherwise the 
server operator has lost their freedom), but whether it's free software for the 
/user/ of that server doesn't decide whether it's SaaS or not [2].

cool-rr@cool-rr.com wrote ..
> I am not sure what you mean by saying "I suspect this is a non-free SaaS
> implementation". Are you suspecting that Librelist is not open-source?

No -- They're talking about something called Software As A Service (SaaS.) This 
is a new issue our community is grappling with. Please see the links at [1] and 
[2] for more information.

Also, something to be aware of: Our community is focused on software freedo, 
not 
"open source." Please read [3]. Please use the "free software" when referring 
to 
software which has the four freedoms. :)

[1] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
[2] http://aws.bluehome.net/saas.html
[2] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html