Eric Raymond at freespire!

[NoWhereMan]

details here
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2603651519.html

[geekchic9]

From the article:

"Desktop Linux must advance now," said Raymond. "If desktop Linux is to advance to a broader audience, it must work with iPods and other MP3 players, play DVD movies, view Windows Media and Quick Time content on the web, and so on. I wish users didn't require these proprietary formats, but it's naive and unrealistic to expect the masses to forgo these requirements in the near future. Linux must make some compromises to attract mainstream users."

I used to be a fan of ESR. I loved The Cathedral and the Bazaar. But what is the point of GNU/Linux if it is not Free by default? Isn't it just another OS?

[Lord Illidan]

From the article:

"Desktop Linux must advance now," said Raymond. "If desktop Linux is to advance to a broader audience, it must work with iPods and other MP3 players, play DVD movies, view Windows Media and Quick Time content on the web, and so on. I wish users didn't require these proprietary formats, but it's naive and unrealistic to expect the masses to forgo these requirements in the near future. Linux must make some compromises to attract mainstream users."

I used to be a fan of ESR. I loved The Cathedral and the Bazaar. But what is the point of GNU/Linux if it is not Free by default? Isn't it just another OS?

It is a catch 22. If Linux is to advance, then it must accept propietary formats to some extent. Then, it can start being strict..

Again, if we are to believe in freedom, I want the freedom of being able to run linux as well as the freedom to use propietary formats.

[cunawarit]

I used to be a fan of ESR. I loved The Cathedral and the Bazaar. But what is the point of GNU/Linux if it is not Free by default? Isn't it just another OS?

It really depends what your goal is, if someone truly wants to penetrate the mass market then you need to let people watch DVDs, Quicktime movies, etc... The average user cares more about watching Ask Ninja in Quicktime than they do about open source software ideals.

I agree with Lord Illidan, Linux can't change things when it is such a small player in the desktop market. If 20% of desktops were Linux people making websites would not include any proprietary content in order to accommodate that 20% of their audience. As it is now, it is often easier to ignore the Linux user.

[NoWhereMan]

I think you are really free if you can decide what to do on your own. You should be able to use whatever format, even closed-source if you wanted or maybe needed to.