[Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
I just finished reading this: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2013/Mar-05.html I couldn't find a thread here that discussed this, but maybe there is one. I tend to think that a lot of the reason the GNU/Linux desktop hasn't crossed the desktop chasm is hardware. Miguel sites in his blog that he has had hardware problems that were frustrating. I think this is a big problem too. Hardware is one of the areas that we can't just write a new program real easily to fix. Graphics cards are a great example. Printers, wifi and other things are challenging too. He also sites packages and compatibility. I see that as a problem as well but that can be addressed per distro. This illustrates that the cause really should be freedom and not convenience, though convenience should be a goal as well. Interestingly enough, Miquel de Icaza posted a response on this blog: http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/march/whyWindowsLostToMac I personally think it would be great to see hardware companies spring up that are 100% in support of free software. Companies that manufacture hardware components. I know Think Penguin exists and I'm really glad they do but lack of supported modern hardware is a challenge for many users.
Re: [Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
Printers are never a problem if you buy from right company. HP Linux driver is fully free. http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html Now back on topic. Problem is not that you cannot find good free driver for any graphic card out there, infact, most of the people do not care about freedom: They care about utility. Ubuntu is great example. With nonfree firmware, drivers and software like steam in Software Center Ubuntu started showing some utility (and rapidly gaining popularity). The real reasons why GNU/Linux hasn't crossed the desktop chasm can really be fixed by writing programs. Here are few problems I encountered trying to promote GNU/Linux: 1) Lack of specialized software: While I was able to offer wide range of software to an artist (gimp, inkscape, scribus, blender...) I couldn't offer anything to civil engineer. Sure, there is FreeCAD but due to stubbornness of rms it doesn't load DWG files. Read: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/libredwg-drama-the-end-or-the-new-beginning and: http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/whats-up-with-dwg-adoption-in-free-software 2) Shockwave Flash. Gnash looked promising, but development is stalled. It can play youtube videos which aren't avaliable on html5, but won't stream some other sites. (Notably, it won't stream any anime) 3) Bugs. I noticed interesting phenomenon: Average end user is MUCH MORE capable of finding bugs than programmer or superuser. While I am generally not affected by bugs, those on whose computers I installed GNU/Linux on are. I feel like tech support :/ 4) Fragmentation. Why is there qcad and freecad? Why is there gnash and lightspark? Why are there totem and vlc? Side effect of this is: Lightspark plays avm2, gnash doesn't. However, lightspark can't play some stuff gnash plays so you end up installing both. It gets more ridicilous: vlc streams rtmp, totem doesnt. totem streams mms, vlc doesn't. Oh and not to mention all the effort wasted on features offered by both options.
Re: [Trisquel-users] HDMI audio output not working.
Before kernels from non-official sources, one could try Linux-libre 3.5 by installing the package linux-generic-lts-belenos (and rebooting the computer).
Re: [Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
IMHO is strange like many free software supporters for years (10 years or more) buy bad computers today. If you live in the US why not buy in ThinkPenguin? If I want do buy one I need to pay shipping and 60% of tax... I need to pay two laptops and receive one ;-) Is the better company sell x86 computers compatible with 100% free software. Any distro can run (100% free or not). Is very common you see in GNOME Planet, KDE Planet and many blogs about the big frustation about the new laptop with Windows 7 or Windows 8 (paying for Microsoft for after remove this for install Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Mint...) of Dell, Lenovo, Apple, HP, Acer, Asus (with Intel Centrino, Broadcom, NVIDIA, AMD Randeon...)
Re: [Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
Some projects made with Blender and FreeCAD: http://yorik.uncreated.net/
Re: [Trisquel-users] On the conversion of a Macbook Pro
Took a look around and I think I understand the difference better now, and there's really no reason not to go for 64bits. While researching for a solution to the wireless firmware I stumbled upon the broadcom open source drivers, that then proceed to install proprietary firmware. It's amazing the lenghts they'll go to make things around this issue as murky as possible.
Re: [Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
Are Blender and FreeCAD cool? Yup. Can they import dwg? Nop. Without complete dwg support they aren't usefull, especially to students since every school in my country uses AutoCAD.
Re: [Trisquel-users] The tale of Miguel de Icaza and the Mac
Big question is why do they buy laptop with Windows regardless of vendor if they don't want Windows. I never understood that :/ Asus offers No-OS laptops. As a bonus, its cheaper!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Thoughts on the GFDL
Let's focus on the common BY-SA for consistency. That can't be the intended meaning, because the license already has, in clause 4b: (I) You must include a copy of, or the URI for, the Applicable License with every copy of each Adaptation You Distribute or Publicly Perform; (III) You must keep intact all notices that refer to the Applicable License and to the disclaimer of warranties with every copy of the Work as included in the Adaptation You Distribute or Publicly Perform. So clause 4d is essentially saying, You must not...take...[any] action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation. Which would make things like satire, parody, modification for the worse, transformation into modern art, and possibly mere destruction illegal. If the American flag were under a CC license, burning it in protest would be illegal, since that could reasonably be construed as mutilat[ing] it in a way detrimental to the nation's reputation. The only way around those restrictions would be to get the section waived (the license allows this if any modification is considered mutilation in your country), but not all of us can move to Japan.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Thoughts on the GFDL
I'm no lawyer, but that's not how I'm interpreting that. I'm interpreting it as don't pretend that dick you drew on the painting was from the original author.
Re: [Trisquel-users] On the conversion of a Macbook Pro
Hi, Have you heard about www.h-node.org ? Its a hardware database which aims to collect information about how well various devices like laptops, graphic cards and wifi cards work with free software. You can use it to find compatible hardware in the future. You can also contribute to it by reporting your hardware to it.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Thoughts on the GFDL
Already covered by clause 3b: provided that any such Adaptation, including any translation in any medium, takes reasonable steps to clearly label, demarcate or otherwise identify that changes were made to the original Work.
Re: [Trisquel-users] HDMI audio output not working.
You could also check whether your sound card is compatible with free software. Take a peek at www.h-node.org. H-node a hardware database which aims to collect information about how well various devices like laptops, graphic cards and wifi cards work with free software. You can use it to find compatible hardware in the future. You can also contribute by reporting your hardware to it. If you manage to get your sound card working, please check if the card is reported as compatible or not and update the device entry if necessary with all the details about how did you managed to get it to work.
[Trisquel-users] Re : free-software compatible laptop
You had better directly contact Chris. He is the CEO of ThinkPenguin. ;-)
[Trisquel-users] graphics mode while booting
how can i change the graphics mode for the boot process? am using the libre-linux kernel from jxself's repository and it used to show me a penguin mascot while booting. at some point the graphics mode must have changed, i can't say when that was, but now i see some garbage pixels during boot. later it changes to the correct graphics mode showing the boot messages and login correctly. Any idea on how it can show the Freedo mascot again?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Thoughts on the GFDL
You should contact Creative Commons and FSF Licensing Compliance Team, then report back.
Re: [Trisquel-users] free-software compatible laptop
Agreed. Chris is pretty good at responding at questions/comments and posts here a lot. He's pretty friendly too, from what I saw.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Thoughts on the GFDL
Interesting ...but baffling! o_O
Re: [Trisquel-users] graphics mode while booting
Have you changed the reso in grub config? Remember to update-grub afterwards if you do.
Re: [Trisquel-users] free-software compatible laptop
Thanks guys, I will send Chris a message.
Re: [Trisquel-users] On the conversion of a Macbook Pro
If brightness keys don't work by default try adding # sudo apt-get install xbacklight then you can manually set your hot keys to raise and lower the brightness. http://linux.die.net/man/1/xbacklight
Re: [Trisquel-users] free-software compatible laptop
There was going to be a higher resolution model back in September... it didn't happen. It's still not off the table although we need to get the demand up to do it. I hope we can fix the resource issue although almost everything is on hold until our new web site is rolled out. That has been delayed time and time again due to difficulties in developing the underlying code (the site is based on Drupal, a content management system, and an e-commerce module called Ubercart, however we are moving to Commerce, and implementing many new features for it), license issues with third parties, and more.
