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

[sophtpaw]

what happened to gnewsense?

[Sunnz]

I would rather use Ubuntu than Gobuntu. Reason: the open-source hardware is very limited.

Sigh...

That's the very reason to ask Dell to support Gobuntu, to get proper free driver support.

[Sunnz]

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?

It would mean that the documentation would have been opened and/or since the source code of drivers are available they can be ported to other OS. That's how some of the wireless drivers in OpenBSD were written, they took write documentation from the source code of Linux drivers, and wrote their own driver using the documentation, effectively porting the driver.

[bruce89]

Sigh...

That's the very reason to ask Dell to support Gobuntu, to get proper free driver support.

My Dellbuntu works with only one non-free thing (ipw3945).

[p_quarles]

It would mean that the documentation would have been opened and/or since the source code of drivers are available they can be ported to other OS. That's how some of the wireless drivers in OpenBSD were written, they took write documentation from the source code of Linux drivers, and wrote their own driver using the documentation, effectively porting the driver.

Okay. Again, the hardware Dell uses already has drivers ported to all modern operating systems (except maybe OS X, which is a different story). So, again, how would this pressure any hardware vendor to release their specs? The OSS community already has the specs. This just makes no sense to me.

[Ireclan]

I fail to see the corolation between Dell using Gobuntu and the increased prevelancy of free drivers...Someone want to clue me into what this guy's point is?

[Sunnz]

Okay. Again, the hardware Dell uses already has drivers ported to all modern operating systems (except maybe OS X, which is a different story). So, again, how would this pressure any hardware vendor to release their specs? The OSS community already has the specs. This just makes no sense to me.

So where's the documentation for 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS and 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3?

[drbob07]

In my opinion. Having a totaly open source OS will turn out to be rubbish.

The fact of the matter is, there is very little (if any?) commercial software that is only available *for linux*.

Think about it... why do you buy a Mac? Video editing, photo editing, shiny plastic, and, the wonderful Boot Camp, or Parallels.

Why would you get a Windows PC? Software available almost anywhere you go. 3D Gaming at its finest.

Why do you install Linux? To stick it to the man...

However, what good is "sticking it to the man", if you can't do anything functional with your computer.

As post #2 said... why would you give up gaming, watching movies, or listening to non .OGG music. If Linux takes away all the fun of a computer, what is the point in having one? To browse the web with very limited flash capabilities (ala Gnash). To send and receive e-mails? That's a mere 10% of what a computer can do.

As much as I hate to be a pessimist. We need some non-free software on our machines. The rest of the world is to focused on money to stop and say "Oh, let's release some source code"


Also, the rest of the world operates in non-free software. If I burned .ogg files to a disc, I have friends who would probably consider them viruses. They would have no clue what a codec is. There MP3 player just "plays" music. It doesn't play these foreign songs.


We need to be interoperable with all OS's, not put ourselves on a little free island and hope the rest of the world comes and joins us.

However, if Dell did start releasing drivers ala open source, their suppliers would likely follow suit. Then the competitors of the suppliers would open source their drivers, just to compete. Then as drivers became open source, certain software would also become open source.

A chain reaction needs to happen, but it can't happen if we take such a drastic step as a fully open-source OS.

IMHO, the restricted-driver system is a much better plan.

[Sunnz]

In my opinion. Having a totaly open source OS will turn out to be rubbish.

The fact of the matter is, there is very little (if any?) commercial software that is only available *for linux*.

Think about it... why do you buy a Mac? Video editing, photo editing, shiny plastic, and, the wonderful Boot Camp, or Parallels.

Why would you get a Windows PC? Software available almost anywhere you go. 3D Gaming at its finest.

Why do you install Linux? To stick it to the man...

However, what good is "sticking it to the man", if you can't do anything functional with your computer.

As post #2 said... why would you give up gaming, watching movies, or listening to non .OGG music. If Linux takes away all the fun of a computer, what is the point in having one? To browse the web with very limited flash capabilities (ala Gnash). To send and receive e-mails? That's a mere 10% of what a computer can do.

As much as I hate to be a pessimist. We need some non-free software on our machines. The rest of the world is to focused on money to stop and say "Oh, let's release some source code"


Also, the rest of the world operates in non-free software. If I burned .ogg files to a disc, I have friends who would probably consider them viruses. They would have no clue what a codec is. There MP3 player just "plays" music. It doesn't play these foreign songs.


We need to be interoperable with all OS's, not put ourselves on a little free island and hope the rest of the world comes and joins us.

However, if Dell did start releasing drivers ala open source, their suppliers would likely follow suit. Then the competitors of the suppliers would open source their drivers, just to compete. Then as drivers became open source, certain software would also become open source.

A chain reaction needs to happen, but it can't happen if we take such a drastic step as a fully open-source OS.

IMHO, the restricted-driver system is a much better plan.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...2&postcount=13

[p_quarles]

So where's the documentation for 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS and 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3?

Nvidia has released drivers for Linux and BSD. It would be nice if they released the specs, but it's not going to happen just because Michael Dell tries to "force" them to. Nvidia can simply say, "hey, we're already providing you with drivers free of charge. Use those."

Now, if Dell were to switch to AMD video cards after those specs are released, that might actually have a snowball's chance of getting nvidia to reconsider. Dell trying to sell a half-working OS is not going to have any impact whatsoever, except to lose sales for Dell.