[Foundation-l] Software Policy Draft

Mon Sep 3 18:09:09 UTC 2007

On 9/3/07, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> There are many languages that are problematic including Khmer, Cherokee and
> Burmese.

Cherokee is supported by several fonts. Support for it is included in
many linux desktops, including the Fedora system which is on my
laptop.

Myanmar (Burmese) is supported by a free font
(http://www.myanmarnlp.net.mm/opentype.htm). The language also has
some more demands on the layout and rendering engine (it has to
support a lot of face substitution).. but Myanmar is supported on free
systems either using the Pango myanmar module or the m17n package.

Free fonts for Khmer can be found at
http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/download/fonts. Likewise Khmer
needs some substitution/layout rules.. Likewise, Khmer is supported by
m17n and the latest pango.

>Also specifying it as any free font has its pitfalls. There should be
>fonts for all the big operating systems. When we want to adopt a policy
>like the one that is being discussed, we should actively support our
>users.

Just about all fonts of interest are available in truetype form.
They'll run on all "major operating systems".

> When you want to have a strict policy about Free and unencumbered software,
> you have to accept the consequences and enable people to use Free and
> unencumbered software. This does include fonts.

No, actually it doesn't include fonts. No one has made this argument
has actually be able to produce an example of a actual gap related to
fonts and if found no such gap would exist for long due to the lack of
copyrightability of the font faces themselves, if nothing else.

Fonts simply are not an area where there is any conflict with free
software, nor in area where there should ever be a conflict.