Alons sent me this message by PM:
Hi,
I am Alons, the Lead Developer of Softaculous a new Instant Installer for cPanel:
http://www.softaculous.com/
We plan to launch Softaculous very soon and we have now started adding Softwares.
So what do we want from you :
1) Permission to add your software in the Softaculous Installer(i.e. Distribute it)
2) Help us to make the Installation/Upgradation Package
The advantages of Softaculous to the enduser would be that they can compare the various softwares before installing. Softaculous maintains USER RATINGS and makes them available in the Softaculous Panel. Softaculous also provides USER REVIEWS given by various users of these softwares. Softaculous also maintains DEMOs of the various softwares. So the enduser can actually get a feel of the software before installing the software.
From the Software Vendors point of view (i.e. you), it makes the installation very fast and simple.
We have a well defined API for Software Vendors to make an installation package.
The API uses XML, PHP and Javascript to make the installation simple and effective.
In our API a software is installed in just One Step. The API is explained in detailed form :
http://www.softaculous.com/docs.php
There is also a Sample Package to help understand the API :
http://www.softaculous.com/downloads.php
The API also provides for upgrading an old installation. For the upgradation the Software can perform whatever tasks it requires.
So we hope to hear from you regarding the Permissions to add your software. Things would speed up if you would make Installation Package. We will add your software to the Softaculous Demo so that you can review how your software is being installed with such great speed.
If you have any questions regarding the API, please feel free to ask me about that!
Please email us your consent to xxx@xxx.xxx
Regards,
Alons
I am posting this publicly along with my reply to give fellow dev team members the opportunity to have a say on this as well.
Personally, I'm not very fond of auto-installers due to the sad experiences we have made with fantastico. For details, please review
http://documentation.coppermine-gallery.net/en/auto-installers.htmLet me answer your questions in detail:
1) Permission to add your software in the Softaculous Installer(i.e. Distribute it)
No such explicit permission needed nor given: Coppermine is being released under the GNU GPL v3. As long as you comply to that license, you can do whatever you want without having to ask for our permission. However, we appreciate that you ask although you don't have to. As suggested, we're not fond of auto-installers, so we will not officially allow you to bundle coppermine with your app. On the other hand, we're not going to stop you (again: as long as you respect the GNU GPL v3 that Coppermine is being released with).
2) Help us to make the Installation/Upgradation Package
I'm sorry, I won't do that. If you want to include Coppermine with your script, you need to do the work. We won't gain anything except extra work if we do. You will have to tell us more anyway: what license is your app going to come with? How are you planning to solve the legal issues (you can't bundle FOSS with non-FOSS software and redistribute that). Your site currently lacks content on the about us page, as it is still under heavy construction, but it doesn't seem to me that Softaculous will be released under GNU GPL or a compatible license - to me, it looks like you're going to create a commercial piece of software. We're fine with commercial applications - after all, we all need to pay the rent - but I can't really see the benefit for us.
I'm looking forward to your reply and to the feedback of fellow devs.
Joachim