Dell & Gobuntu, our chance to demand open source drivers?

[Sunnz]

If your going to add non-free stuff to it then why bother to use Gobuntu. That's only for the extreme purist who refuses to run anything not extremely Free.

And the gstreamer plugins would not qualify.

Drivers...

[jrusso2]

Drivers...

Dell is already pressuring their suppliers to provide drivers.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item&px=NTkxOA

They also got a winmodem driver made

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7536907294.html

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/91429/index.html

[Sunnz]

I think there is a huge misunderstand from people and this is very disappointing.

Being a purely free distro does not disallow you to install non-free codecs or software. The normal Ubuntu does not come with non-free codecs anyway, it is not that much different.

Second, Dell is a hardware manufacturer. They sell pre-assembled computers. This have absolutely nothing to do with codecs. The Ubuntu computer they currently ship with does not come with non-free codecs, Gobuntu doesn't make a difference here. And this is a software issue, it is patents or what not held by the codecs/DVD guys, Dell can't play much in here, and it is not the intend to solve any problem by requesting Dell to support Gobuntu anyway!!!

What I am asking here is hardware support, if it is a wireless card, provide a free wireless driver, if it is a 3D card, then provide a free graphics card driver. Demand the vendors to provide documentation to support this distro, do whatever make things work.

It is not to say software support is not important, but things need to be done one at a time. Get proper hardware support first, then get everything else to work.

[jrusso2]

Read the links I posted. Using gobuntu would eliminate a lot of not free enough things already in Ubuntu and would make it harder for new users to add them.

There is no reason to pressure Dell to use Gobuntu when Ubuntu is free enough.

They are already working with ATI and other companies to provide open drivers.

Why do you want to make them use Gobuntu? I bet less then one percent of Ubuntu users will switch to Gobuntu.

[Sunnz]

What are the "not free enough" things you are talking about and why would it be "hard" to install?

The reason is to provide free drivers for the hardware, effectively supporting every distro there is and even OS other than Linux, e.g. BSD. Free drivers are always good, it means people can fix bugs, improve security, and what not.

If that's the case, all the power to them. However from your first link it seems like they don't care if the driver for ATi is free or not.

As I said for proper hardware support. Gobuntu is Ubuntu, you would still need to install the codecs, libdvdcss, or what not, just like if you are using Ubuntu. You can easily just apt-get ubuntu-desktop anyway so my question would be, why not? And no please don't tell me in some vague manner that it is somehow "hard to use".

[Buffalo Soldier]

Why do you want to make them use Gobuntu? I bet less then one percent of Ubuntu users will switch to Gobuntu.

Make it one percent plus one then

It's the concept of Free Software and GPL that has brought us this far. The only way to guarantee that we won't return to the monopolistic-one-OS world is by going all the way.

No harm in enjoying the cozy relationship we have with DELL and other FOSS-friendly hardware manufacturer. But at the same time we should not stop fight for our consumer rights.

Free Software is not just an "ideal". It's a wonderful system desiqn to avoid:
- one entity monopolising a product/market,
- the destructive splintering like what happened to myriad of non-interoperable UNIX systems,
- hardware manufacturer from eroding the rights of consumers, and
- non-accessibility of our own data.

[Sunnz]

And I bet 99% of Ubuntu users will be glad if Dell supports Gobuntu by pursuing hardware vendors to provide free drivers.

[smartboyathome]

I would rather use Ubuntu than Gobuntu. Reason: the open-source hardware is very limited, and if you install non-free stuff, it become Ubuntu again. Also, I am not one who is wanting to be totally free of proprietary.

[p_quarles]

What are the "not free enough" things you are talking about and why would it be "hard" to install?

The reason is to provide free drivers for the hardware, effectively supporting every distro there is and even OS other than Linux, e.g. BSD. Free drivers are always good, it means people can fix bugs, improve security, and what not.

If that's the case, all the power to them. However from your first link it seems like they don't care if the driver for ATi is free or not.

As I said for proper hardware support. Gobuntu is Ubuntu, you would still need to install the codecs, libdvdcss, or what not, just like if you are using Ubuntu. You can easily just apt-get ubuntu-desktop anyway so my question would be, why not? And no please don't tell me in some vague manner that it is somehow "hard to use".

The drivers that are distributed with Gobuntu -- or any other operating system -- only exist within that operating system. How would only distributing FOSS drivers have any impact on your ability to switch to another distro?

The important thing is that the hardware itself is Linux-ready, and Dell already builds the Ubuntu systems with widely-compatible hardware. I don't own one, but I'm willing to bet that you could easily install any Linux distro, any BSD, or any version of Windows on a Dell Ubuntu system. Chances are, you can also install Gobuntu on it, if that's what you really want to do.

Give it a shot.

[bruce89]

Diff between ubuntu-desktop and gobuntu-desktop

--- ubuntu	2007-10-15 18:26:07.000000000 +0100
+++ gobuntu	2007-10-15 18:25:45.000000000 +0100
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-ubuntu-desktop
+gobuntu-desktop
   Depends: acpi
   Depends: acpi-support
   Depends: acpid
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@
   Depends: gnome-themes
   Depends: gnome-utils
   Depends: gnome-volume-manager
+  Depends: gobuntu-artwork-usplash
   Depends: gstreamer0.10-alsa
   Depends: gstreamer0.10-esd
   Depends: gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps
@@ -114,7 +115,6 @@
   Depends: unzip
   Depends: update-notifier
   Depends: usplash
-  Depends: usplash-theme-ubuntu
   Depends: vino
   Depends: wodim
   Depends: x-ttcidfont-conf
@@ -129,7 +129,6 @@
   Depends: yelp
   Depends: zenity
   Depends: zip
-  Recommends: app-install-data-commercial
   Recommends: apport-gtk
   Recommends: avahi-autoipd
   Recommends: bluez-cups
@@ -185,7 +184,6 @@
   Recommends: powernowd
     powersaved
   Recommends: pxljr
-  Recommends: restricted-manager
   Recommends: rhythmbox
   Recommends: scim
   Recommends: scim-gtk2-immodule