Wow, lots of relies. Let's start top to bottom haha. :)
>>I would feel much happier to donate to the FSF if it actually looked like
they were working on an OS distro like Trisquel or even an official GNU
distro and keeping up with the new hardware that comes out.
>By purchasing a laptop with Microsoft Windows you already "donated" several
dollars to Microsoft. The FSF cannot work on new distributions without
funding, so if it is important to you please donate money to them as well.
I did not buy the computer because I like giving money to Microsoft, as
Microsoft is the last company I'd ever want to support. I'm just as disgusted
by it as you are, but I do not have a credit card nor do I have money to buy
a system like ThinkPengiun. I am a student and have no job, I bought a cheap
PC, unfortunately some of the money had to go to Microsoft. It's just as bad
as blank media levys going to the RIAA, I don't buy it to support the RIAA,
but I have no other choice. If I could get a Windows License refund I would,
but I can't, so whatever. I have to live with this PC as this PC was the best
I could do. With that said...
> I should point out that the FSF expresses no interest in developing its own
distro:
>Quote from https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html.en#gnudist
>> As for developing a distribution of GNU/Linux, we already did this
>> once, when we funded the early development of Debian GNU/Linux. To do
>> it again now does not seem useful; it would be a lot of work, and
>> unless the new distribution had substantial practical advantages over
>> other distributions, it would serve no purpose.
I am really disappointed by this. The FSF should build or stand behind in
some way and help fund an OS that keeps up with hardware support as the
drivers are released to make it easier for people to switch to free software.
If they did this I would go out of my way to try to support the FSF in this
if they would work together, but as it is now all they do is campaign. I'm
not against campaigning, but it's like putting the cart before the horse. It
makes no sense to me to tell people to switch to free software when the
majority of PCs out now cannot run it not because the hardware isn't
supported in free software, but because the latest releases of free software
OSes are behind in adding support for the hardware.
RMS said when he made GNU he did it because, while he couldn't "change the
world" and convince the big companies to liberate their software, he could
write software and he made GNU, yet today it seems like the FSF and RMS has
lost that philosophy and resort to campaigning only; and it's showing in the
area of true free software GNU/Linux distributions. Now because the FSF does
not promote, fund and back a single free software OS that stays current with
new free software supported hardware, the community has to, and the community
is really fragmented, lacks funding and is widely volunteer only. Trisquel,
Parabola, Gnewsense is just an example of fragmentation. I'm not saying
choice isn't good, I support Trisquel and the other projects otherwise I
wouldn't be here, but it's no secret that all of the free software OSes have
a hard time finding time and money to put toward their projects and it's
really unfortunate.
It also makes it harder for a supporter to decide which project to support.
For example, I could donate to Trisquel, but there is not much indication
that many people would donate enough to make much difference than how things
are now. But if the FSF had *one*, easy to use OS that effort could be put
into, like Trisquel, lots of people support the FSF and it would show there
was a standard everyone could support.
If the computer doesn't work with free software, people can't switch and then
you're helpless, especially if you're someone in my shoes where you're a
student or poor and cannot afford to buy a PC that does work, such as one
from ThinkPengiun. I don't see how it's much different than living in a
Country that is oppressive but you have no option to leave, except this has
to do with computers and not countries. What do you expect people to do? They
can either switch to Ubuntu and try to liberate it the best they can because
it works, or use Windows, and we all know what Windows is. Ugh.
>The best feature in Trisquel is that it gives you freedom. Ubuntu does not.
It captures the user one way or another with the excuse of giving more
functionality; a golden cage. It is a passive and not an
>investment. If you do not value freedom, sooner or later you will regret it
because the powerful know how to trick people with temporary and apparent
benefits.
I don't need the pep talk I already explained above my intentions and my only
options, I just want a system that works that is free (as in freedom), but
it's really hard due to the lack of a modern free software OS. See above. I'm
not a programmer so any *real* help to get this to work is appreciated.
> I suggest you check h-node as I told you before. You can also check
>dmesg for firmware that is not loaded due to it not being free:
>dmesg | grep -i firmware
I will do that, but I checked h-node before and my hardware is not even
listed. I expect that's because it's new? I have no idea. I read here:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM1NjI that the drivers
were included in Linux Kernel 3.11, and the fact that the graphics works on
Ubuntu 14.04 suggests it was included some time around there, plus the
Xserver does load after I update Linux Libre in Trisquel, just without
hardware acceleration when I update the kernel. That's why I think it may be
a Xorg config issue. Intel has always liberated the firmware and drivers in
the past with their other CPUs I have no reason to believe the firmware is
closed now, but I'll check tonight when I reinstall Trisquel.
> Try the LTS enablement stack from saucy. Simply run:
> $ sudo apt-get install --install-recommends
{linux-generic,xserver-xorg,libgl1-mesa-glx}-lts-saucy
This is the only real suggestion that I could try while everyone else wants
to give pep talks that I have already heard. Thank you. Someone else above
suggested try saucy packages but when I tried it in synaptic I got dependency
issues. I will be reinstalling Trisquel tonight and will try this as I might
have broke something. I'm not sure. It is important to note however that I
don't believe this will work as I actually have booted the real Saucy in the
past and had to install the alpha 14.04 as saucy did not support the
graphics.
Nobody here is aware of any other Free software OSes that have more up to
date software on it. Parabola? I know it's based on Arch and not Debian but
if I have to use it I will if it's my only choice as I just want this to
work.
Any other suggestions are appreciated as I don't know what else to do. Real
suggestions, not pep talks with why I should use free software as I have
already established the importance of free software long ago and I am really
honestly trying to get this to work with free software.
Are there any Trisquel 7 alpha builds out I could install? Anything really
would be appreciated. The only PC I got working now is an older one with
Debian Wheezy and I'd like to get my new system to work.
-Jonah
