Hello there,
I you gave your opinion (and I respect it totally) the I will give mine if
you let me.
Before anything, I just love to see how bombastic this kind of topics can be
in places like this. It is like talking about sex in a church. But that's
another thing.
Here is my point of view.
I understand totally what you say and I agree at 100% with it. I will not say
no. BUT (and there is a BUT) this is what happened and and should be
hapenning.
At the beginning of the informatique, when programming starting to enter the
high classified universities all over the US, everything was open (I am not
using the word free), and why ? Because there was no reason for it to be
otherwise ! What happen to new things that start as closed (again that word
:D) thosedays by a single guy ? They simply die (it is a matter of fact not
an opinion) unless they are cheap.
Now we have 2 camps, the Linus Torvalds camp that only created a Kernel with
the idea that it should work on his machine, and the Richard Stallman camp
with the idea that everything should be free (as in free speech) because
everyone around him start going to all those "Evil" and "non-free"
corporations that wanted to make money out of everything they touched (we
need money to live, I don't aprove that, but once again it's a fact).
Years have passed and we are in 2013. Now this is what I think personally:
Gnu/Linux (System + Kernel) was created under the idea that everything should
be free (as in free speech). But then it started to atract convience (not
sure if this is the word I want), and non-free drivers start to populate the
kernel (when they shouldn't). Long story short, because of this we have now
totally free distributions like Trisquel that removed all of the non-free
stuff from a simple distribution to be used daily.
I don't want non-free stuff on my computer and this is why I choosed
Gnu/Linux. Nothing more ! If I wanted non-free stuff I would choose Windows.
And if I wanted non-free stuff that would only work under a certain machine
with a certain brand I would choose a Mac.
We can't go the house of other people and just say them to chance. This has
been done by many in the past, and those many I love to call them "convenient
users" to not call them anything else. I have been myself a "convenient user"
and when something wasn't working I would switch directly to Windows or
simply let him side-by-side with Ubuntu in order to get anything working. But
then I started to understand the problem... From Adobe that stopped the
support, from nVidia and the security bug that gives root access and hasn't
been solved since 2004, the Ati Catalyst drivers that wouldn't work unless
you use your Ubuntu at 5pm with a metal hat in the sunlight.
But today we can't change the past. Linus can't just say "Hey! Let's remove
all the blobs :D"... well he can but he doesn't want.
So what can I do ? I can create an exact copy of that house and remove all of
those things that I don't want. And be sure that I would not fall into the
pression of other convenient users that didn't understand why my house is
yello and not blue.
So to finish. I understand what you say my good sir. I have a mother which
doesn't get a thing about computers and just want it to run in order to go to
facebook and play those proprietary games with that proprietary flash. What
can I do ? Well I can teach her, but they don't want to know about computers,
because it's not their thing. So I have to give her Chrome with Flash with
Facebook. But there is something I can do for sure since I am a programmer...
I can work on it, I can create an alternative, I can do anything in my power
with my knowledge in order to give them an alternative that would be
compiling with what I believe and would work with what she wants.
Now if I let myself say... well... why do the work if Chrome + Flash +
Facebook works already.. ? Then I would become "another one" a normal people
that wouldn't care about my liberty and would let anyone do what they want
with my stuff. This is not my way of thinking and this is not my fiolosy.
And this is why I (try to) use my knowledge in order to help the translation
for those that just want "things to work with no problems". Until then, they
have to use the same software. Ubuntu if they really are into the jump
(remember that I didn't jumped directly from Windows to Trisquel...). Or
Windows/MacOsX if they see too much television and/or advertisments make them
want anything they buy.
This is what I feel and what I think. I'm pretty sure a lot of people here
think the same. But we are all different. So I understand you correctly, but
you also have to understand me (as a community) perfectly. If you want
proprietary stuff me (as an individual) would be glade to help, just in order
to see you happy. But this is not the place, and will never be.
Now just remember something. This is not about profit or publicity. This is
about an idea. A way of life and a way of thinking.
Maybe I am wrong.. but there is no way to know it until I've try it :D
I'm sorry for my bad english, so if something was weird in the text or seemed
offensive just excuse me :D
Best Regards,
Luis
