ubuntu marketing

[Russell Harrison]

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 7:52 AM, Rahul Sundaram
<sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
>  Intel has open drivers with full documentation. ATI is followup fairly
>  fast. Nvidia is the odd man out here. Besides many kernel developers
>  consider proprietary kernel modules a violation of the GPL license. We
>  shouldn't and needn't take such risks for binary blobs that we can't
>  debug or fix issues.

This is why I support Fedora's policy of not including binary kernel
drivers.  I've always felt they must be a GPL violation.  I just don't
have the legal background to speak with any authority on the subject.

Having said that I do actually use the binary drivers. When the
hardware you get at work comes with one of those cards you do what you
have to.  :-(  One of the things I don't understand about Windows
users complaining about finding and installing these drivers on Linux
is the simple fact that they have to do the same thing on Windows.
Every install of Windows I've ever done involves half a day or more
looking for and installing drivers.  On Linux I've only got a handful
to worry about.  Every thing else just works.

What I do wish Fedora had was a better way to explain why things
didn't work interactively.  For instance when a user attempted to
access a NTFS partition a warning stating that there are patent issues
preventing support of NTFS partitions in Fedora for legal reasons, and
a link to more information, codeina style.  I don't have a problem
with linking to fluendo as long as we link to any other available
legal solutions as well.  Nothing motivates people to take action like
a hit to their pocket book.

Russell