We can work without 3d graphics cards, video players, or other things
not needed for typical work. I don't consider it a reason to not have
such things free.
No we cannot work without 3D graphics cards. Modeling architecture or moving
parts of a mechanism in order to understand it better has nothing to do with
gaming yet requires 3D rendering.
And video players are needed as well, come on. It's not like we are using
them only for watching blockbusters from DVDs, right?
They being commercial is completely unrelated. I believe changing them
to not need Wine would be useful, so they being free would be more useful.
Commercial is not an issue, in fact I meant all the games that are mainstream
and aren't licensed under GNU GPL or something similar. And who ever said
that being able to play without Wine isn't desirable? Sure it is, but I'll
play my games in any way I can, with or without Wine.
"Isn't meant to" means that their manufactures decide to not allow using
them for it? There are clear problems with that.
It means exactly that. What's the issue? I see no problem, my freedom hasn't
been harmed if I use a device that isn't meant to access the internet and do
my everyday work. Is your freedom harmed just because your TV can't do all
that, or your microwave?
Now, if a console is in fact functioning as a computer and not simply like a
gaming device anymore, it would be better for it to have a free operating
system or else it's taking away freedom from the user.
Software is art. There are beautiful programs like TeX which uses
interesting algorithms designed for it to solve real problems. It's
good that some people modify TeX into programs better for some uses.
Software is art if you look at the code itself. Code is poetry and all that.
But while using, no one experiences the art in it, for the user it is just a
tool for work. Tools aren't supposed to bring some artistic message, they are
supposed to be useful at a particular task. Thus you need the freedom to
change it, which of course involves the freedom to study the code and have
that same code available.
A game on the other hand is supposed to look in a certain way and deliver a
certain gameplay experience. Therefore, you should not be able to easily
change it, because changing means destroying it. You would not like it if
everyone was able to change, say, Star Wars movies at will and redistribute
them just like originals? The changes made in the remasters are awful enough
and people complain about them, wouldn't it be even worse if everyone could
make his own version and put it out there, so no one could really distinguish
where the original is?
