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On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 12:46:51AM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
> 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.
The point is that there should be choice. I choose not to use
proprietary software unless absolutely necessary (university coursework,
for example), even though it means I'm more limited in what I can do
with my systems. On the other hand, if other people choose to use
proprietary software then that's up to them - it seems hypocritical to
be telling other people what they can and can't do with their computer,
when I wouldn't put up with someone telling me.
I think Ubuntu approches it from the wrong direction - users should
choose to use proprietary software, rather than choose not to. Debian's
separate repositories for non-free code and documentation works well.
bma
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