lör 2011-06-04 klockan 18:57 +0300 skrev Hoyt Duff: > The goal should be to have a distro that 'just works'. Solving the > problem by copying files from outside the repositories may point out a > deficiency in Mageia repos, but not if the solution can be found > within. >
Yes. > And this brings up a point of having the tainted repos as "opt-in". > This thinking comes from a philosophy of some kind of "pure" Linux > which eschews non-free licensed software.However, some hardware can > only be useful with non-free software and it's unrealistic to pretend > that such hardware does not exist nor that those using such hardware > will have the knowledge and skill to enable the tainted repo. > Its not about pretending that the hw does not exist. It's about educating people about trying to buy hw that is properly supported by free software when/if possible. > I realize that the purists among us have decide to disable the tainted > repos by default, but those same people are the ones most likely to > have selected hardware that does not depend on non-free software and > they are also skilled Linux users. The opt-in approach serves to > advance their political agenda at the expense of having a distro that > 'just works' for the average to non-technical user. > It's not just about "purists". It's also about the reality. There are people that live in countries where software patents are a reality, and they want to have a "clean" install by default. So it should be opt-in by default, not opt-out. > It may be more sense to enable the tainted repos by default and > provide an opt-out screen during the installation: "Repositories > offering access to software that have non-free licenses are enabled by > default. To keep your Mageia system unencumbered by software with > restrictive or non-free licenses, please un-check the box. Certain > hardware may not function without such non-free software and if you > are unsure, leave the box checked." > Actually it was intended to be the other way around, even for nonfree section. But no-one had time to adapt and properly test the installer for those changes for Mageia 1, so we left nonfree enabled. For Mageia 2 anything but core will be disabled by default. And when the installer notices the need of something from nonfree, it will ask to enable it. > That gives users a choice, makes Mageia a 'just works' distro for the > average user and reduces the number of requests for assistance that > can be solved by using non-free software. > -- Thomas
