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On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 23:12:43 +0000 "Ben Goodger" <goodgerster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > IMO this is good. As I have covered before, it is more important that > hardware (e.g. networking) should work than for the system to be "free". Thereby lies the road to oblivion. Ben, you really ought to think through what happens if there is no free alternative and proprietary is all we have. By using non-free wireless networking drivers, you force those who cannot access the non-free drivers to go without wireless. Say they have the hardware pre-installed and they want to upgrade the OS - who provides access to the updated non-free drivers? Isn't it obvious that this provider has the user over a barrel? They can't upgrade the OS to fix X security issue because they don't have the right access. It's WRONG. My brother had a trivial example - his Lexmark printer worked fine with Win98SE but when he had to upgrade to WinXP to fix problems with the installation, WinXP refused to accept the printer because it was too old for Lexmark to consider "certifying" it with XP. He could afford to buy a new printer so that's what he did - my point is that it is WRONG for any provider to force a user into such a situation. What happens to another user who cannot afford or obtain a new printer? The printer driver should have been free software so that someone else could have tweaked the driver to work with the upgraded OS. It's about sharing. It seems strange to me that Ubuntu, who promise the CD to anyone anywhere to get over a lack of internet access, should support restricting wireless internet access to those who have the luxury of non-free. Proprietary code is a poison and an insult to those who are prevented from using it. > Basic functionality over freedom, always - for me. I consider anyone who > truly would rather have a defunct computer than a slightly > proprietary-running one to be at least slightly insane, but I don't mind > what they do. I don't consider wireless to be "basic functionality", neither is 3D nor graphics acceleration nor internal PCI modems. GNU/Linux has covered "basic" functionality since before I started using it with Mandrake7. What is considered "basic" is subjective. To me it means a hardware modem, IDE hard drive, CDROM, Cat5 ethernet, entry-level monitor, sound support that is no worse than a cheap car stereo, wired keyboard and mouse support and some form of external bus. Something like my Pentium1 box that is quietly running Debian stable and handling all my email. > It's when the FSF start trying to use Ubuntu as a boat for > their political agenda that I become annoyed. Ultimately, the project is > about universal access to technology IMO, and if this entails proprietary > software so be it. Freedom is political, there is no escape from that and I refuse to apologise to anyone for dealing with free software as a cultural and political issue. GNU/Linux has never been about free as in beer and no-one can doubt that free speech is a political issue. Free software has always had a political agenda, it cannot be separated from the code. "The project" is about freedom because only freedom can actually achieve universal access to technology. Proprietary can never provide universal access because proprietary means discriminating against those who do not or cannot meet the EULA requirements. The only EULA that would actually allow everyone to share in the technology would be the GPL (or public domain). Ben, what is more political than the proliferation of proprietary software into countries that cannot afford basic healthcare or sanitation? Why should poor countries not have a free operating system? Why do you support non-free distributors who want to prevent those who cannot use proprietary software from having access to that technology? -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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