On Tuesday 21 May 2002 02:39 pm, Alastair Scott wrote:
> Mind you, the Stallman piece is interesting; his line is that, as
> Linux contains rather a lot of GNU material, it should be called
> GNU/Linux and not enough credit is given for the involvement.
It is called GNU/Linux. Only the kernel can be called Linux.
Everything else on the download edition of Mandrake is GNU in the
sense it's GPL licensed or it's dropped. Tack a binary only driver
onto your kernel, install StarOffice, and you can no longer claim to
be usin GNU or Linux.
> He also has a characteristic argument that binary-only drivers
> (here comes the Alcatel Speedtouch USB once again :) violate the
> GPL so should be reverse-engineered and rewritten under the GPL to
> maintain a 'pure' 'free' Linux and, by a rhetorical trick, manages
> to blame Linus Torvalds for this situation.
Nvidia, Lucent, Netscape, ..... they do violate the spirit,
security, and dependability of free software. Too much of this crud,
and GNU/Linux will run no better, or be any more secure than Windoze.
Probly less so.
>
> The extremity of his arguments is most unusual and refreshing but,
> in the end, self-defeating because the arguments are not
> convincing; there are much more important things to do than writing
> device drivers twice.
Unfortunately you're right. All too many are willing to take the
softer easier way out and taint their system with closed source
proprietary insecure buggy closed source drivers and software. I'm
not excused either, but I am aware of the consequences and dangers
in doin so.
http://www.mandrakeforum.org/article.php?sid=427&lang=en
http://www.gnu.org/
OTOH you're wrong (ie, 'more important things to do') I'd offer
OpenOffice as opposed to StarOffice, 'nv' vs. 'nvidia' drivers as
examples.
> And anyone in a campaigning position has to destroy the self and
> not get into wrangles about names, precedence, purity of motive and
> so on; once you start doing that people switch off and you're
> finished :/
>
> Alastair
Unfortunately you're in the mainstream along with most of us.
RS's delivery is often a turn off. His PR sux. Consider tho public
perception of what he advocates. His ideals are poo poo'd, yet when a
Peruvian politician introduces a bill to make free software mandatory
by law .... he's all of a sudden a world wide hero.
A matter of 'selling the ideals'? Yes to some extent, but the
real problem is the unwashed masses don't understand or are ignorant
of the situation, and don't care. The majority of M$ users worldwide
aren't of the opinion that GNU/Linux isn't ready for the desktop,
they don't even know it exists. Even if they do, they have no idea
and/or misconceptions of the difference between open and closed
source, free or proprietary software and hardware.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
