Ubuntu is not free.

[meets at free.fr]

On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 13:09:16 +0200
"Adriano Varoli Piazza" <moranar at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2006/7/8, meets at free.fr <meets at free.fr>:
> > Hello,
> > A man reported the fact in a french mailing list : some proprietary
> > firmwares are inclueded in the kernel package.

> > We users _want Ubuntu to stay free_, and we don't need non free
> > firmwares pollution in the default kernel packages. It's quite easy
> > to install afterwards when needed.

> You don't get to say what I as a user want or do not want, need or do
> not need. Please don't assume everyone agrees with you, even on this
> matter.
Hello,
You are a free software user, and the Ubuntu distribution pretends to
be a free software.

The firmware used to belong to the hardware, on the ROM. Now it's in
the software, and louched in RAM. In all the distributions we can get
them with the installer distribution : apt-get, or urmpi, or yast, or
slapt-get, or pacman... but Ubuntu is the only one that incluedes it in
the kernel, in spite of it's affirmation to be a free software.

Then, Ubuntu is not free. And the users of free software want to stay
free.

If you want this firmware to be in the kernel, you install or compile
it. If the free software users want to be non free software users,
their choice. We need to keep the choice, and _most important!_ get the
information. That's why when this man on the french list says he can
install it with his distribution installer, but gets the information
while doing it, he points out something important that makes the
difference.
"Savoir qu'il n'est pas "facile" d'installer un logiciel proprio ne
m'intéresse pas. Ce qui m'intéresse c'est d'être informé. Ainsi, si
j'en ai envi, je peux installer, par exemple, le driver ipw2100-fw, je
fais : pacman -S ipw2100-fw Par contre, un message me prévient que le
driver n'est pas libre. Loin des méthodes d'ubuntu ;)"

He says a message warns him that the driver is not free. Most non free
software require you to sign and accept the license text, at this
moment.

The non-free software should be removed from the default kernels. 
They should be made available as addons just the same way as everywhere
else, and as the codecs, the non free fonts etc.... 
Best greetings, Joyce Markoll.

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20060708/0f7fa728/attachment.sig>