> saying you represent free software, when you use proprietary drivers...Is
not only hypocritical, its suspicious.
I'm going to call bullshit here. Using a proprietary driver while saying that
proprietary software is bad is not necessarily hypocritical. There could be
all sorts of reasons for using a proprietary program even when you wish to
avoid doing so. Context matters.
Most of us use computers that run proprietary software at the level of the
boot loader which is actually quite dangerous, myself included (though my
laptop being from Think Penguin, it's probably not quite as dangerous as most
systems out there). Even RMS used a computer which had a proprietary BIOS for
some time before he finally found one which supported a libre BIOS. Does that
make him a hypocrite? No! It's just that the fact of computing today is it's
incredibly difficult to run no proprietary software at all. In this imperfect
world, we often have to make compromises. Compromises that mostly harm
ourselves, mind you, so it's not even unethical for us to make these choices.
And "suspicious"? What ulterior motive could you possibly expect people to
have to run software that mistreats them? It's like saying you're
"suspicious" of a person who says he is against indentured servitude, and yet
is an indentured servent himself because economic circumstances required it
of him. You're vilifying the wrong person.
