[kwlug disc.] All of you Ubuntu people

[Paul Nijjar]

On Thu, 8 Feb 2007, Rick wrote:

> Is Ubuntu going in a good direction by pulling in more
> proprietary potential whereas Debian is being too strict?

 	Debian's strictness often annoys me but I am glad they
are careful about their licensing. I think that some of their
decisions (especially with respect to the GFDL) are sketchy,
and I hope they are again including the non-free repositories
in their installer, but they do catch problems that other
distros miss.

 	Having tried to put together a distribution I can say
plainly that having DFSG-free software makes my life so much
easier. Dealing with proprietary licencing when producing CDs
or distributing the distro is SUCH A PAIN. So I want a distribution
that is composed of all free software, and I want it to be
usable. The further down the road we go to accepting proprietary
codecs and drivers, the less likely that will be -- who wants to
put in all the work to make a free alternative when a convenient
non-free alternative exists? Stallmanites do, but who else?

 	I do think that Linux and open source is losing (or has
lost) the free codec war. That makes me sad, and the DRM
that is all-too-often associated with those proprietary codecs
makes me sadder. I cannot say with confidence that the masses
will come to their senses and revolt, however.

--
Paul Nijjar - http://www.fairvotecanada.org/WaterlooRegion
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
(This is my new personal account. Please send personal correspondence here.)