Jean Louis, these points aren't really relevant - we're considering whether the OS is free, not the hardware.
On Wed, 9 Nov 2016 10:17:20 +0300 g...@rcdrun.com wrote: > Hello Zlatan, > > I am following this list, as a user of GNU, and somebody who compiles > those to me needed GNU packages from sources, and I endorse all free > and FSF endorsed GNU distributions. > > Sadly I am in such a position that cannot easily order a computer > without proprietary BIOS. At least I don't use any proprietary > firmware, and the one for this ath9k chips, I have compiled myself, it > was hours of work to get less than 100 kb firmware file. > > I see that on your website, you are selling notebooks. I don't know > nothing about them, and if you are calling them Librem, I just assume > they are without proprietary BIOS. > > I have reviewed this FAQ here: > https://puri.sm/faq/ > > and I did not find anything in regards to BIOS. I have found on other > pages on your site, that you are basically still using blobs, like it > says here: https://puri.sm/posts/bios-freedom-status-nov2014/ and I > cannot know what is updated information. > > The impression is that you are offering a notebook products, and that > you are trying your best to reach into the target group of free > software supports, and you try your best to liberate the notebook from > proprietary software, in order to reach to the mentioned group of > people. > > The focus is not on free software. The focus is on a notebook, that is > to reach the free software users and supporters. > > Only, why did not you come up in the first place with a notebook > without blobs, and non-free firmwares? From beginning? > > What can you do to actually offer libre notebooks? > > Do you see my point? On one side, you liberate the operating system, > like PureOS, and on the other side, you are yourself selling non-free > notebooks. > > You are promoting free software distribution on the same domain where > you are selling non-free software to people. > > My observations: > > 1) PureOS domain is not pure from proprietary software, in fact, it is > promoting sales of notebooks that still contain proprietary software > > 2) Notebooks were chosen from beginning to have the proprietary blobs, > firmware, whatever, and you have offered them for sale before that has > been handled. > > 3) While you are promoting PureOS as free distribution, you have a > business that pushes proprietary software into hands of the users, I > refe to blobs and firmware, I don't know if anything changed, you can > let me know. > > 4) I have not reviewed where other free distributions host their > software, however, I don't have Github account (not any more) and will > not be able to file bugs against it. > > 5) I have reviewed als your repo location and its source code on: > http://repo.puri.sm/pureos/ and I can see that ChangeLog is of zero > bytes, which tells me there were no changes ever, or somebody is > simply placing a file for its own sake. > > 6) After the review of the file Packages.xz I see that you are using > something like Debian packaging? I don't say anything against that, I > am just looking into the efforts to liberate the software from > anything proprietary. Are you putting those efforts? Or are you just > repackaging some other distribution? > > 7) After the review of "Sources" of PureOS, I could find on this link: > http://repo.puri.sm/pureos/dists/green/main/source/ the file name > Sources.xz for which I was thinking, what it is? It was uncommon to > me, to find a file without "tar", so I have reviewed the file. Don't > take me wrong, I like sources in general, that is why I am compiling > all packages from sources. I am addict to sources. And on your > website, I could just find one file relating to sources. > > The file does not give sources of the PureOS, it just points out to > sources of Debian packages. > > There are few packages that are showing some "pureos" work being done, > those relate to package management, and customization of the Gnome > system. > > I have also reviewed your purism Github account, > https://github.com/purism and on the package pureos-meta I see there > is 1 contributor. > > All that is good. I just see pure efforts for free software > distribution. I see much of efforts for customization of the Debian > GNU/Linux to comply to your notebook sales. > > In fact, I guess, you would be better of in selling notebooks, if you > would say "Debian - ready" and simply letting people use any > distribution they want, without PureOS pre-installed. I am not sure if > you are gaining anything in notebook sales like this. Maybe a simple > customized PureOS wallpaper and menu, on the pure Debian GNU/Linux > installation would do more for you in terms of sales. > > 8) The website for PureOS is not separate from a notebook sales > website. In fact sales are in the first focus on that domain. I don't > say you should not sell notebooks, I say that your focus is on sales > and much less focus on truly purely making a free software > distribution. > > You asked for comments, you got it. > > I am not member of FSF, even I made few small contributions. I am just > somebody out there, sitting in the town of Geita, Tanzania. > > Jean Louis > > > On Wed, Nov 09, 2016 at 01:43:59AM +0100, Zlatan Todoric wrote: > > Hi all (again), > > > > we are restarting the process of getting PureOS as FSF endorsed OS. We > > built new infrastructure and released alpha 2 image publicly so we want > > to march together on this road with you and see the final release of > > PureOS 3.0 as FSF endorsement of PureOS. > > > > Image available for download: https://puri.sm/pureos/download/ > > > > Repo location and it's source code: http://repo.puri.sm/pureos/ > > > > New infra brings few things that might (should matter) to community: > > > > Bug tracker: https://tracker.puri.sm/maniphest/ > > > > Wiki (we could use interested parties here :) ): https://tracker.puri.sm/w/ > > > > Code hosting: although it is mostly here https://github.com/purism and > > on other parts of github, we plan to move most (probably all) or mirror > > at least to https://tracker.puri.sm/diffusion/ > > > > > > Compared to last time - I appreciate all suggestions and hopefully you > > can use our bugtracker for submitting bugs (or even code/pull requests) > > and hopefully we can avoid bashing and bad language. We really want to > > do this properly and be welcomed into GNU family. > > > > > > Thanks all and let the work begin, > > > > > > Z > > > > >
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