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Packages inclusion rules

This is an article from the Svarog386 tech base

Svarog386 is a FreeDOS(tm) distribution that comes with plenty of third-party packages. With time, packages get updated and new packages are being added. However, Svarog386 is not a shareware distribution CD, nor it is a "warez" production of any kind! Every software that is distributed within Svarog386 must comply to a few common sense rules, as listed below. *** Objective usefulness *** The distributed software must be useful. There is no point in distributing hundreds of "Hello World" programs for example. The software must be useable as a finished product and provide some features that are proven to be seeked by at least a subset of the user base. Games are considered useful, as long as they fulfill their goal of providing actual distraction. *** Reasonable quality *** The packaged program must exhibit traits of reasonable quality. This means that it should have a deterministic behavior, and be free of undesirable side-effects to the user's computer (not crashing, freezing, resulting in unexpected loss of data, etc). It should also provide clear, non-ambiguous instructions to the user about how the program is meant to be used. *** Free (no cost) *** The program must be free - that is, available at no financial cost. It doesn't have to comply to an OSI-approved license or be open-source (even if that would be preferred), but at the very least it must be free for personal, non-commercial use. *** Distribution allowed *** The program must allow distribution without restrictions, and must not forbid being redistributed in a re-packaged form. ---------------- CORE exception ---------------- Please note that, while the above rules are valid for all third-party repositories that come with Svarog386, it does not apply to the 'core' repository which contains the operating system itself. Svarog386 being a free (as in "libre") operating system, all "core" packages must comply to a libre-like license - be it GPL, BSD, public domain, or anything that allows for unrestricted distribution, provides source code and allows to modify it freely.