Non-opensource drivers

[John Nilsson]

On Sun, 2006-11-26 at 02:21 +0200, Karoliina Salminen wrote:
> Exactly. And on the other hand, Windows->Linux end users don't use
> Ubuntu because of ideology but because it is a good operating system.
> And if e.g. the 3D or even graphics mode don't work without closed
> source drivers and if they are not installed by default, the
> Windows-user will go back to Windows right away and flames all over
> the place in the Internet that Linux sucks, just because he don't have
> the expertise to install them by himself. They don't care other than
> if they have a product that works or does not work.

This argument has two answers:
1. Don't tell those users to install Linux.
(1.1 You could install it for them though...)
2. Put some effort into making the open drivers work good enough for
them.

To sell out the long term goal of the free software movement just to get
some short term benefits is just not an option.

People are free to use whatever driver they want, but when the free
software developers do the work of integrating, distributing,
installing, configuring and supporting proprietary drivers, something is
seriously wrong.

If Nvidia or AMD want their drivers to be installed per default they
should be forced to either fork Ubuntu and maintain their own distro or
release some code the community can work with. (Or give some serious
money to Canonical... Is that what has happened?)

Regards,
John Nilsson