re all, yesterday I've managed to release dyne:bolic 3.0.0 codename MUNIR which represents a new course of development for our distribution, also thanks to the review and suggestions contributed here.
here is the full release announcement: http://ftp.dyne.org/dynebolic/README Now I'm not writing you to announce the release also here :) trying my best to not be a spammer in these occasions :) rather than point your attention to a part of the text in the release which might be interesting to expand and maybe adopt for projects like http://h-node.com Here below is the text I'm talking about: it elaborats a comparison between the food system industry and the influence of patents and proprietary technologies to that of the software world, so that it can show the ethical reasons moving us to remove anything that is not 100% free, also at the price of supporting less hardware (one of the most common objections to our choice..) Your comments and corrections are welcome, please also consider I'm not a native english speaker.. It doesn't works on my computer! some cards are not found... ------------------------------------------------------------- A big difference between dyne:bolic and other popular operating systems around is that we adopt only 100% free software, which means our system is free from proprietary software. The result is that we can provide support for less hardware cards (video, network, wireless and such): just those working transparently, following a well documented protocol and running free and open source drivers that make it clear to everyone what the device is doing. It is frustrating on the short term to have such a limited hardware support, but we think is worth on the long term because it gives everyone the freedom to study, adapt and modify software and hardware and to clearly know what is happening inside our machines. * Why freedom is better on the long term? To explain why this is important, let us propose you an example in a different context, that of food production: many farmers in the World have been told by the global mega-corporations that by buying and using their proprietary chemicals and seeds their farms would be more productive. The result of this corporate fraud is that farmers become dependent from foreign and proprietary chemicals and seeds: they are often genetically modified so that plants won't produce more seeds, plus they are protected by patents so that farmers themselves cannot study, adapt and redistribute the technology they are using. It even gets worst, since these proprietary and globalised products cannot be appropriate to the contexts they are used: not even the promise of productivity is maintained and the soil gets poisoned by the ignorance and inability of the mega-corporations that will never be able to supply very different needs around the world. Now, back to your computer :^) think of how important is the technology you use to build your social interaction online, your digital productions and audio/video creations. As the importance of this technology grows in your life, so it grows the power of the mega-corporations which are acting unethically by locking you out of your own device, denying your freedom to study, modify, adapt and redistribute all what you use. On the long term you will find yourself depending from these technologies and being limited by them, you will not be able to evolve and use your knowledge and skills at their full potential. You'll be a mental slave trained to say yes to license agreements progressively corroding your rights and interacting with prefabricated interfaces which will limit your freedom and squeeze out your time and money while doing that. That's why we consciously eliminate support for the hardware that closes you up in such traps. For instance if you are a digital artist, using dyne:bolic or other 100% free operating systems you can be sure that your creations can be preserved in time, without being held hostage of proprietary technologies needed to reproduce them. * Ok! so you think you're smart, hu? what should I do then?! Next time you buy technology, think twice and choose wisely! here is a useful initiative you can visit to find out which hardware is well supported by free software: [http://www.h-node.com] Liberate yourself from mental slavery! -- jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org GPG: B2D9 9376 BFB2 60B7 601F 5B62 F6D3 FBD9 C2B6 8E39
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