[Fwd: Re: Fedora free software?]

[seth vidal]

On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 21:36 -0400, Dave Jones wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2007 at 03:15:39PM -0500, Tom spot Callaway wrote:
>  > -------- Forwarded Message --------
>  > > From: Richard Stallman <rms at gnu.org>
>  > >
>  > >     I honestly wish we didn't have to have such a clause, but without binary
>  > >     firmware, the vast majority of wireless hardware is completely
>  > >     non-functional.
>  > > 
>  > > We have to recommend that people buy the only products that don't
>  > > require non-free firmware.  See the Hardware pages on fsf.org.
>  > > Can you help spread the word about this?
>  > 
>  > The link that RMS is referring to is here:
>  > http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/hardware.html
>  > 
>  > I don't think there is any harm in Fedora recommending that consumers
>  > purchase wireless products that don't require firmware. I'm not entirely
>  > sure the best way to go about this, though.
> 
> We can certainly promote it, but I don't think we should go to the extreme of
> not shipping firmware just because it's "non free".
> 
> This problem is much bigger than just wireless too. If we decide to go the
> crazy debian route of not shipping firmware, we can forget about a ton of
> storage hardware, a bunch of ethernet drivers, x86 microcode updates, some
> sound cards and probably a bunch of USB gadgets.
> 
> Neutering our drivers just as we're starting to get somewhere with "works out
> of the box" would be a huge step backwards.   Is it worth driving
> more users towards Ubuntu in the name of "freedom", especially given
> it's a freedom that few (if any) would ever exercise?
> 
> "Buy something else" isn't really an answer for situations where you can't
> /get/ something else.  Try finding a laptop with a wireless chipset that
> doesn't need firmware.

Seems like there are 3 things we should convey, then:

1. you should attempt to buy hw with completely free drivers

2. if you cannot, we have some options to get the best ones available at
current which are not quite free but they're closer than a lot of
others.

3. if all else fails, be aware of the issue and why we need more
pressure on hw vendors to do the right thing. So end users should tell
the companies they purchase from that they won't completely open
drivers.


The whole point is we are educating users where we cannot do a more
correct thing, right?

-sv