Fedora philosophy (was ATI video comes out of the closet)

[Craig White]

On Sat, 2007-09-08 at 17:12 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
> Craig White wrote:
> >>
> >> I get the impression that he thinks that if it was what he wants,
> >> that it would also be what the rest of us want. 
> 
> I do think that.  Should we take a poll on how many people want their 
> machines to be unbootable after an update?
> 
> >> Something like 'I
> >> want it my way. Make it my way and it you will find that it is what
> >> you really want, not what you say you want.' He knows what is best
> >> for us. sort of like the way Microsoft feals about its users...
> 
> If you care to count those users, especially desktop users, you might 
> notice something there.
> 
> > ----
> > actually, Les has made it clear that he believes the fundamental problem
> > is the GPL license which requires that device drivers be compatibly
> > licensed to become part of distribution and that GPL license causes
> > companies such as ATI & nVidia to provide less than their best efforts
> > for Linux.
> 
> There is such a fundamental problem in general, in that the GPL 
> restrictions prevent many useful combinations of things from being 
> distributed even when all parties would like to give them away.  However 
> in this case the specific problem is the lack of a stable and specified 
> interface so a device driver can independently provide services for the 
> kernel without either being considered a derivative or needing to 
> revised every time the kernel is rebuilt.
----
not really a problem for software where the source is available and much
more of a problem for software that is distributed as binary only.
----
> 
> > Obviously, Les' opinion is not a very popular one on this list but he is
> > entitled to his opinion and it doesn't make him a bad guy.
> 
> GPL fanatics, like the covered code, seem to have a problem co-existing 
> with anything else...
----
And hopefully the distinctions of 'this behavior' are significantly
improved upon by GPL v3

As for your specific verbiage, there's a lot of ways of saying it -
including many that cast GPL in a favorable light. But - we've already
had this discussion and having it again isn't going to change either of
our opinions. 

I did want to point out that the top 2 quotations you have attributed to
me were not mine.

Craig