Following FSF Philosophy?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Monday 22 May 2006 14:59, Arjun Shankar wrote:

> Well, I don't really know if this is the right place to ask, but, I
> have a question about how deeply Ubuntu follows the principles of
> Freedom.

Depends how you define "following the principles of Free software".

If you are a deeply committed rms fan, then the mere existence of 
non-free software on a machine makes the whole thing non-free. Ubuntu 
doesn't follow that approach.

There are other points of view: RMS himself used a non-free platform 
to bootstrap development of the GNU tools - how could he do 
otherwise? Sometimes you have to be pragmatic, and use a non-free 
platform to develop a compiler so you can even get started. Free 
software is all about the user and giving users a choice. Part of 
that is the freedom to not agree and do it differently.

I view Ubuntu as following this approach. If you have an ATI or nVidia 
card and want 3D (a perfectly reasonable thing to want), there is no 
free driver that suits. So you have to use a proprietary one. Ubuntu 
provides Free software to do X where a Free solution exists for X. As 
much as possible, the default is to install only Free software, and 
at the same time give users a way to use non-Free software if they so 
choose.

So I would say that Ubuntu completely respects Free software, but 
doesn't necessarily toe the FSF party line. For one thing, it's 
called Ubuntu Linux, not Ubuntu GNU/Linux

-- 
If only me, you and dead people understand hex, 
how many people understand hex?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five