Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 24th Nov 2006 23:05 UTC, submitted by SEJeff
Permalink for comment 185314
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
More News »
Sponsored Links



Member since:
2006-01-17
I see most of the advocates for a totally free Linux distribution use the GPL as their sole arguement. While purity and vigilance are admirable traits, I don't see the point in the real world. None of us run a completely free OS. The Linux community doesn't exist in a bubble. Hardware requires drivers, and some of it is not open source. And believe it or not, some of the best software written is not FOSS (sorry Linux zealots, it's true).
So *other* than the GPL arguement (which I believe is a red herring because I can't believe that many posters are lawyers or REALLY care - You're just jumping on the bandwagon), why is including proprietary drivers that we NEED a bad thing? If they are freely available to download and use, what is the legal ramifications of providing them? Obviously not much, as there are several distros out there that provided those drivers before Canonical even existed.
You want Linux to take over Windows and be easier for newbies to convert. Giving them the ability to use all the hardware they own is necessary. You can't have your cake and eat it too.