al3xu5 said on Wed, 14 Apr 2021 19:53:59 +0200 >Tue, 13 Apr 2021 22:03:02 +0200 - tito <[email protected]>: > ><snip> >Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:02:54 -0400 - Steve Litt ><[email protected]>:
<snip> >[ Extra OT comment START > >> Stating it the inverse way, I HATE these installs that bomb because >> there's no FSF-satisfying drivers, firmware or software to handle my >> new laptop's weird hardware. And those distros that do that, their >> mailing lists always say "well just put in a thumb drive with the >> drivers/firmware!" How the KFDWOJMFOW do I know which drivers and >> firmware? I think free software purist snobs drive more people back >> to Windows than cleanse people of their non-free ways. > > >I agree in principle, although I believe the question is more complex. > >Premise 1: <snip premise 1, stated better than I could have stated it> > >Premise 2: For me it does not detect to talk about Windows vs Linux or >distro_a vs Distro_B: it is not about "selling" something, nor to >"vote" to establish what is better or worse. The more market share Linux has, the more hardware vendors will be pressured to release API info to Linux devs, or at least write a quality proprietary driver/blob/firmware. Brother does it. Radeon does it. They don't do it to be nice guys, they do it to sell more product, because Linux has a market share. See this article I wrote these two articles after encountering extreme hardware/Linux clashes, and various purists blowing off all those with uncooperative hardware, including Linus Torvalds, who was considering getting rid of my one route to wifi in 2006, ndiswrapper: http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm#_You_Bet_Im_Mad http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm#_lifeAfterWindows >Premise 3: The "pure" distros (those who do not provide "non-free" >software) should bring users to increase their awareness: even if this >is an important and shareable goal, the result will hardly be achieved >in this way... I'll go a step farther. Such distros should, on the first screen of all their install methods, warn the user that *their* distro has no non-free drivers/blobs/firmware and might not work for the user's hardware, but this is not true of many other distros. Let the user it's not GNU/Linux causing this, it's the particular distro. SteveT Steve Litt Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list [email protected] https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
