Kier <vallon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:58:51 +0100, [H]omer wrote:
>
>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>>
>>> It can't be easy being Fedora, overshadowed by Ubuntu
>>
>> Ubuntu took the compromise and distributed patent encumbered components
>> and tainted drivers, whereas Fedora took the less pragmatic and more
>> idealistic approach ... which was a more noble, if less popular choice.
>>
>> Now it seems factions within Ubuntu are looking to clean up some of the
>> proprietary dirt, with the Gobuntu project. Predictably, that probably
>> won't be popular either, but it certainly will be popular with *me*.
>
> That's fine, if it's what you want. It isn't what quite a lot of other
> poeple want. Narrowing choice is not a good thing. No one is forced to
> used Ubuntu, or any other distro.
>
Unfortunately, that is the kind of thinking which results in binary
lock-in. Let me give you an example to illustrate the point:
You can install Ubuntu on an x86 machine with an nVidia card, install
the nVidia driver, and play quake 3 (assuming the hardware is actually
up to the job).
You can install Ubuntu on a PPC machine with an nVidia card, but
you *cannot* install the nVidia driver, and you *cannot* play quake 3,
even though the hardware *is* up to it, because it works in OSX.
The reason is that nVidia only supply binary drivers, and they only
supply them for the x86 platform, so you are locked to a particular
combination of hardware and software.
Richard Stallman created the free software movement specifically to stop
people having their choices taken away in exactly this way. Gobuntu is
not about removing choices, it's about ensuring that *real* choice is
available, and that it is not confused with lock-in to given selections
of hardware and software being presented as a 'choice', when really,
it's about taking away choice(s).
Fortunately, the nouveau project (if I have the name right) has
recognised this choice reduction inherent in the binary-only nVidia
driver, and is aiming to replace it with a traditional free-software
solution. Once this work has been done, then users of OpenGL capable
nVidia cards on *any* platform will be able to play OpenGL games (okay,
Quake3 is not the best example here, as the code is proprietary too,
however, nexuiz is a good example - the code is available for PPC, but
the openGL drivers are not).
If you want choice, and want it to be available in perpetuity, then you
need projects like Gobuntu and Fedora. If you are happy to be locked to
the platform combination which some people in nVidia say you can have,
then you don't need those projects.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
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