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On Wed, Nov 15, 2006 at 07:12:56PM +0000, Mark Jose wrote: > The problem currently lies with functionality as I see it Matt. The > nv driver works fine as long as I don't want accelerated > graphics. For my less powerful systems, I choose that with no > question. However, for my main machine, I like acceleration - I play > a lot of games on my system - so I have to make a choice. I can have > no acceleration and keep my system free; install the nvidia non-free > binary blob or remove my (mostly free) OS and install Windows. Those are the three options, as I see them. > Now, there is no way that Windows would go on any of my machines, Why not? Playing devil's advocate for a moment, is there much difference between using a mixture of proprietary and free software, and using Windows? I'd be interested to know why you don't run Windows. Here's why I don't run Windows - I don't like it, and I don't like it because everything I tried to do with it was difficult, and things would frequently break and I would wind up with spyware, or unreliable software. The system didn't respect my freedom, and so I moved to Mac OS X, thinking things would be better. They were a little better - things generally didn't break down as much, and I didn't have any spyware, but I still couldn't change the way things happened - it also didn't respect my freedom. So I moved wholesale to using Debian, and I don't have any non-free software on my machine, and it's a Mac, and so none of the proprietary drivers are available for it, and so I do not have that option. I have the radeon driver installed, and 3d is not too shabby on it, but I am aware it could be better, however I would not install a non-free driver on my system, even though it means I can't play games on it, because to do so would be to give up on the idea of free software. I've used systems without the freedoms I have now, and I would never want to go back on that. > so, as I like my gaming, it is the nvidia commercial driver which I > use. Ideally, a free accelerated driver is the best option, but unless > things have changed recently, this is not yet available. As for > distros having the non-free blobs or not, well I guess that is a way > to make GNU/Linux more appealing to the non technical users who > perhaps are considering moving from the Microsoft option. By not > offering the "extras" such as 3d acceleration or closed source > modem drivers, codecs etc, will we alienate those people? The purpose of the system is to be free software, the purpose of the system is not to be popular. Maybe some people will not want to use the system, because a certain codec is not available, but we should not include those codecs by default, or make them available to them in any way. Same with drivers. Non-free kernel modules are in a grey area anyway, as to create a derived work of a GPLd piece of code, it must be GPLd. > I fully understand the views of the FSF and in many ways we should > aspire to their position, but for an awful lot of users they are > simply not 100% practical. Is it better to have lots of users who > try to use free software whenever possible, but still feel they can > use closed source software if it is needed for their enjoyment of > the PC, or do we maintain the view that all software on a GNU/Linux > system has to be free and open? It is a difficult decision I find, > which is why I run free when I can (i.e pretty much most of my > systems here), but will install non-free if I have to for my > computing enjoyment. I think that if you're running a GNU/Linux system, you should not install proprietary software. I cannot see a difference between running the GNU system with some free software and some proprietary software and running Mac OS X, for example. matt -- Matt Lee Chief Webmaster, GNU Project - http://www.gnu.org/ - Free as in Freedom Free Software Foundation - Free Software, Free Society - http://www.fsf.org/
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