On Tuesday 08 May 2007 18:41:35 Casey Hendley wrote:
> As much as I dislike having to do it, I have to use proprietary drivers
> in order to have a working system (Ubuntu 7.04). I have an Nvidia card
> (sorry, I'm a gamer, that's not going to change), I have large numbers
> of MP3s and proprietary media formats (AVI, MPEG, even WMV).
> Unfortunately I've had problems with Ubuntu's nvidia-glx-new driver,
> while the binary driver from Nvidia works well. This sucks, but it's
> also reality -- and how free am I to get work/play done when I have to
> reinstall the driver constantly and spend hours per day in fiddling with
> my xorg.conf?
>
> *I* didn't rip all these files into proprietary formats, someone else
> did. When I rip a CD it is to OGG or FLAC. But to tell people they
> shouldn't be able to watch any of their movies or listen to their music
> is just not realistic, *at this point*, even if our ultimate goal is
> software freedom for all.
>
> I agree with RMS that the aim of GNU and the FSF is not the commercial
> success of "Linux," but rather promoting freedom. It is our duty to do
> just that, but not so zealously that people have to suffer an awful
> end-user experience because, unfortunately, many drivers just aren't
> open ("our" devs will eventually reverse-engineer them, we know that).
>
> But let's face it -- most of us are selfish when it comes to computing.
> We want our stuff to work, we want our media to play and we want stable
> systems. And unfortunately all of the above require me to use
> proprietary drivers and formats *for the time being.* To say that
> GNU/FSF hasn't made great strides in underscoring the importance of
> software freedom just isn't true. We just haven't won yet.
>
> We haven't reached the ultimate goal, true freedom, with GNU/Linux or
> any other OS (I'm also a proponent of the idea that the average end user
> should *not* be using a UNIX-like OS, which should generate a goodly
> amount of flames :D ) but we are definitely making progress.
>
> And Ubuntu GNU/Linux is a popular distro, it's getting new people
> involved and, because we don't stop advocating freedom and we don't stop
> emphasizing the importance of it we will eventually win. We can't wipe
> out proprietary software for good (I just don't think it's realistic)
> but we *can* and have made people realize that DRM, TC and other
> technologies designed to limit us are hurtful and intolerable.
> These people are learning, understanding, and eventually they will
> become proponents of freedom as well. But you can't just slam people
> right into hardcore no-closed-code-allowed systems when half their stuff
> might not work, especially if they're n00bers who are terrified of the CLI.
>
> I make it a point to swap out proprietary "blobs" that I'm using
> whenever possible. But unfortunately some of our open software just
> hasn't effectively replaced the proprietary stuff -- when it does, I
> will convert to the free bits. Let's hope someday this won't even be a
> concern; but for the time being it remains one.
>
> Regards,
> Casey Hendley
> FSF Member #5288
>
>
>
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We really need to stick to the topic. This discussion is entirely off topic.
--
~ Michael D. Stemle, Jr. <><
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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