Following FSF Philosophy?

[Derek Broughton]

Peter Garrett wrote:

> On Tue, 23 May 2006 15:37:00 -0500
> "Cybe R. Wizard" <cybe_r_wizard at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
>> The Linux kernel is non-free?  I haven't checked the licenses but find
>> myself surprised.

The simple answer is that linux-386 is _not_ the kernel.
> 
> I suspect the non-free bits are the "restricted" modules etc -
> 
> apt-cache depends linux-386
> 
> [ snip]
> Depends: linux-image-386, linux-restricted-modules-386
> 
>  So if you want to be "RMS pure", don't use linux-386, just install the
> image.. Of course, what that might do to the functionality of the machine
> is another question, depending on hardware.

Exactly.  I'm not an FSF purist, but my hardware was chosen specifically to
ensure that there _was_ free software available to drive all of it.   One
of the first things I did after installing Ubuntu was to remove
linux-restricted-modules-386 (and thus linux-386).

I just tried vrms on my system and was surprised to find I only had 10
non-free packages: 2 font packages I've never used, 3 obsolete java
packages, the new Ubuntu sun-java-* packages and _mysql-doc_!

That last really surprised me.  Now I only have the sun-java packages (I've
never used mysql-doc either!) and with luck they'll be under a Free license
soon.
-- 
derek