Freespire's Google ads: "What is Ubuntu Missing?"

[Derek Broughton]

Eric Dunbar wrote:

> If you cannot call Freespire a 'free desktop' then neither can you
> call Ubuntu a 'free desktop' for, as someone else points out, you must
> install w32codecs and nvidia-glx to support proprietary formats and
> specific hardware.

Sorry, it just doesn't follow.  I wouldn't try to run Windows on a Mac, and
I wouldn't try to run Ubuntu on a platform using nvidia.  The fact that
somebody has provided a proprietary software to enable running Ubuntu on
proprietary hardware doesn't make Ubuntu any less free.   In the same vein,
Sasha has said he doesn't install w32codecs, and neither do I.  Now perhaps
that also applies to Freespire, I don't know and don't care, but Ubuntu is
no less Free for not supplying those and potentially preventing many people
from using it.
-- 
derek