[Pkg-fonts-devel] RFC: Getting linux-libertine modernized

[Khaled Hosny]

On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 06:31:32PM +0200, Christian PERRIER wrote:
> Quoting Khaled Hosny (khaledhosny at eglug.org):
> 
> > No it is not. I, for one, don't like people asking me to rename my fonts
> > (and it actually happened) it feels a bit insulting; "You don't seem to
> > know how to choose a proper name for your work, here is a better one."
> 
> 
> Your fonts are not using "Linux" in their name..:-)
> 
> Also, suggesting upstream to reconsider renaming their font (or
> adopting a clearer policy) has no reason to be insulting if done
> properly, without enough context, explanations...and respect for their
> work.

I got people with much stronger reasons why I should rename my fonts,
but font name as something I put considerable effort into it not just
random thing I pick (and I think that is true for many font designers).

> For sure, I certainly don't want to enter a naming fight with
> upstream, here (particularly because the only part we'd like to rename
> is the package name...something we, in Debian, are completely entitled
> to choose the way we want).

It does not make much sense and will be a compatibility nightmare;
people upgrading their fonts and suddenly all old documents using "Linux
Libertine" are broken (in cases of e.g. TeX it means not being able to
process the document at all), and no fontconfig aliases is not a
solution since not every system is using it. Renaming such widely used
font at this very late stage is very bad idea no matter how good the
reasons.

> A compromise (that doesn't have my preference) would be naming the
> package "fonts-linuxlibertine" making it clearer that "linux" is not a
> foundry name.

That sounds like the best solution.

Regards,
 Khaled

-- 
 Khaled Hosny
 Egyptian
 Arab
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-fonts-devel/attachments/20111010/58e505ff/attachment.pgp>