[clue-talk] Re: [clue-tech] The latest Debian feud - worth a read

[dennisjperkins at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Brian Gibson <bwg1974 at yahoo.com>
> > Collins Richey wrote:
> > > http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2008/12/28/debian-philosophy-and-people/
> > 
> > Yes,
> I'm a zealot, though not particularly wild-eyed. ;-)  Could we move
> this to Talk?  That seems a more appropriate forum to me.
> > 
> > Thanks for your consideration.
> > Dave
> 
> I'm a pragmatist.  I want the _freedom_ to install free _and_ non-free software 
> where I feel each is appropriate.  What I wouldn't give for a native binary for 
> Adobe products and games, for example.  In any case, ship a fully compliant free 
> distribution of Debian.  Please just include the easy button to install non-free 
> software.  It can't be all that hard to make a meta-package to add a repository 
> of non-free software and then install a list of commonly installed and 
> recommended software because the fact remains, free software hasn't filled all 
> the holes of non-free software... yet.  Graphics drivers stick out like a sore 
> thumb in this regard.  And just for fairness, the proprietary graphics drivers 
> fall short of features when compared to their counterparts on other OSes; 
> hardware accelerated video, where are you?  Include the free software manifesto 
> as a popup when the user clicks the button for all I care.  The majority will 
> pay as much attention to
>  that as they do to the EULA that ships with non-free software.
> 
> 
> 
>       
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ATI drivers might not be a problem much longer.  AMD has been releasing information on the ATI chips, so the quality of the free ATI drivers should improve rapidly.

I don't know that I consider myself a zealot, but I stand with Dave in this.  The purpose of the GPL is to keep the source for programs open and available to programmers.  That users benefit from this is a priceless side effect.  Any improvements to GPLed programs cannot wall them off from the software commons, to borrow a phrase from Lessig.