Truthfully, I can't believe this debate is still RAGING! Everyone seems to
miss the point. While these points are very valid, and most of us agree,
this is not the place to discuss this topic. There are other places for
that.
Now, I'm going to wait for the debate to continue, because no matter how
often we say it, people will have their two cents on the matter.
Jacob
> 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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