Ubuntu is not free.

[Adriano Varoli Piazza]

2006/7/8, Norman Silverstone <norman at littletank.org>:
>
> > On Sat, 2006-07-08 at 13:04 +0100, Dick Davies wrote:
> > > No. That's what YOU want.
> >
> > Well, ubuntu.com explicitly calls it a "free, open source operating
> > system"
>
> I have tried to resist joining in here and failed. Could someone please
> tell me how this, somewhat philosophical, discussion helps Ubuntu to
> become a better product and helps users like me better able to use it to
> full advantage.
>
> Norman

philosophical: that's a false assumption you started with: this
discussion doesn't purport to help Ubuntu, but to help us understand
it at most. For my part, this discussion intended to clarify that
no-one should pretend to represent me without at least asking. That's
a freedom I ought to have.

I want to point this out: there's only perhaps two distros I know of
that only use free software (defined in the loose "and
open-source-software-too" way). They're ututo-e (recommended by RMS)
and the extremadura Linux project I don't recall the name of. Both are
limited by this. Both have a small user base, though the extremadura
project covers a region of Spain.

All of the other distros provide nonfree software through their
repositories, even when they don't (can't)  distribute it on the
physical media. Mandriva's free download edition and Debian/Ubuntu are
three distros I know (those I know, I could of course be wrong) that
distribute only FLOSS software on the free download media, and that
might be stretching it if Joyce is right.

Self righteousness is something best left out of here. Many people
hopefully use Ubuntu without caring much about free or nonfree. Many
of us use the win32codec package, and it's hard to go more nonfree
than that. Alas, it's the only way we can enjoy some video files. I
enjoy free software as much as anyone, but I don't see proprietary
software as necessarily evil. It's just that I choose one over the
other, _when I can_.
-- 
Adriano Varoli Piazza
The Inside Out: http://moranar.com.ar
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