[Fsf-friends] Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Vivek Vaghese Cherian vivekcherian@gmail.com
Thu Apr 7 14:18:15 IST 2005


On Apr 7, 2005 12:42 PM, Anand Babu <ab@gnu.org.in> wrote:
> ,----[ Ramanraj K <ramanraj.k@gmail.com> ]
> | [ Re: Workshop on TRIPS Treaty and Computer Programs at UoM ]
> | participants may be people totally new to free software.  We have
> | received about 100 Ubuntu CD sets, which we will distribute to the
> | participants to introduce them to free software.
> `----
> Though Ubuntu team did a very nice job, they call their distribution
> (operating system) as Linux and not as GNU/Linux. It concerns me to
> promote them.
> 
> --
> Anand Babu
> GPG Key ID: 0x62E15A31
> Personal Blog  [http://freedom.freeshell.org]
> The GNU Operating System [http://www.gnu.org]
> 

On the URL http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ubuntu/licensing/document_view
and under the section The purpose of the "restricted" component they say

The Ubuntu team recognizes that many users have vital hardware in
their computer that requires drivers that are currently only available
in binary format. We urge all hardware vendors to insist that their
suppliers provide open source drivers for their components, but we
recognise that in some cases binary drivers are the only way to make
your hardware work. As a result, Ubuntu includes several of these
drivers on the CD and in the repository, clearly separated from the
rest of the software by being placed in the restricted component.

Binary drivers are a poor choice, if you have a choice. Without source
code, Ubuntu cannot support this software, we only provide it for
users who require it to be able to run the Free Software we provide in
main. Also, we cannot make binary drivers available on other
architectures (such as the Mac or IPAQ) if we don't have the ability
to port the software source code ourselves. If your hardware is fully
supported with open source drivers you can simply remove the
restricted component, and we would encourage you to do so.

If closed source code drivers are a bad choice after all, why include
them in the first place ?

The reason they provide that closed source drivers are required to be
able to run "Free Software" they provide in the main is as lame an
excuse as one can get.


-- 
Vivek Varghese Cherian
Free as in Freedom 
www.gnu.org



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