Lars NoodC)n schrieb: > It seems that OpenBSD's Stop the Blob message is getting more recognition: > > http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob > > As the article points out, better late than never. > > Though OpenBSD had been on my list of things to look at for years, it > was the Stop-the-Blob campaign that provided for me the final nudge. > > Regards > -Lars > > Sorrym but your are misguided. GNU and the Linux kernel hackers have protested often over all the years. One thing that has holded them back is that firstly Linus does not seem to care very much about the GNU principles (but he cared so much to chose GNU license) - another thing seems to be that many Linux kernel hackers work for companies that understand their mission as to provide the customers with what they want. And also, as you all know, open documentation has gone a long way till today. For long years on many hardware parts free software was not available.
Richard Stallman protested openly in 2006 more visible than OpenBSD did: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/rms-ati-protest.html You are right that OpenBSD and Theo did make reoccuring demands over many years and one could truely say that OpenBSD has always been more determined and clear. If Linus would have been an advocate for free software I am sure things would have been gone in a different direction. Personally I believe all free operating systems have worked on the change of the situation. The popularity of Linux has helped to create a market that has better and more open documentation - and machines that are made to work perfect with Linux (like eeepc) are more easily made to work perfectly for OpenBSD and other free OSes. There are different paths that are walked, but I remember there have been a lot of quarrels with hardware vendors from the Linux kernel hackers and often some hackers tried to establish a more strict policy. My guess is that more Linux hackers today think that they have enough drivers to push things forward and to use the power to indeed force hardware vendors to comply. In the past users were more used to beg for support and documentation and everything that was given - and if it only where NVIDIA binary drivers where applauded as a great gift. But now times are changing - maybe some hackers always thought like that but did not believe in a possible success - but now they do. Linus could help greatly if he would speak out in the same sense. I doubt he will, because he is thinking more about practical aspects, which means he seems to see a free license of the kernel as very important but also thinks that if things work somehow, that is good enough and that forcing the vendors might backlash somehow. Regards, Thilo -- Thilo Pfennig - PfennigSolutions IT-Beratung- Wiki-Systeme Sandkrug 28 - 24143 Kiel (Germany) http://www.pfennigsolutions.de/ XING: https://www.xing.com/profile/Thilo_Pfennig - LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tpfennig
