[Nix-dev] Packaging free software that costs money

[Bjørn Forsman]

On 6 July 2016 at 12:50, Bjørn Forsman <bjorn.forsman at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6 July 2016 at 12:27, Profpatsch <mail at profpatsch.de> wrote:
>> Free software doesn’t mean it is free as in free beer.
>>
>> There are a couple of (very good) applications, that are
>> sold, like for example Ardour or Radium.
>> They are normally distributed as binaries, but come with
>> the source code (as required by their license).
>>
>> I think nixpkgs should include them as well (if only because
>> executing the pre-built binaries on nixos is impossible),
>> but I also think it is ethically questionable to skip the
>> buying process.
>>
>> I’m at a loss.
>
> One improvement we can do is making it easier to run pre-built
> binaries. Right now you have to create a Nix file with
> pkgs.buildFHSUserEnv and pass in a lot of data[1].

And what about those new distro-independent packaging formats?
appimage, flatpak, ...? It'd be really nice to be able to run those.

- Bjørn