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

[Sunnz]

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.

I don't think selling a half-working OS is anybody's idea of supporting an OS. The point is to increase demand for nVidia (and perhaps other vendors) to provide free drivers.

[p_quarles]

I don't think selling a half-working OS is anybody's idea of supporting an OS. The point is to increase demand for nVidia (and perhaps other vendors) to provide free drivers.

Yes, I understand that. What I don't understand is why you believe that Dell is in a position to "demand" that nvidia do anything more than provide working drivers for its products? What is in this for Dell? What's in it for nvidia? Why would either of those parties be the least bit interested in a business deal which would benefit neither of them?

[Eddie Wilson]

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.

Have you ever used an totally free operating system? I'm talking about free as in freedom and not as in free beer. I would say that 90% of what you can do in a loaded down non-free os can be done in a free os. Restricted drivers are just what they say they are. RESTRICTED. Its really a sad state of affairs. I myself use restricted drivers. I'm gonna try to see what can do with a totally free system, without all the bloat added. A person doesn't have to give up their non-free distro, just try a totally free distro also. I bet you can do anything you need to do.
Thanks, Eddie

[keyboardashtray]

I don't think some here get the point:

Sunnz is talking about having Dell support Gobuntu by selling hardware that is completely compatible with a 100 percent free OS. Meaning it can run Gobuntu (or gNewSense, etc.).

This doesn't mean you can't run proprietary drivers and codecs. And it doesn't mean you can't run vanilla Ubuntu. Hell, you could run Windows for all it matters. Hardware that is fully compatible with libre/free software is fully compatible with the closed/proprietary software, but it doesn't work the other way around.

It's a matter of Dell building their desktops with free-compatible hardware. Why would anyone here, using Ubuntu, have a problem with that? I mean, you don't have to be a purist to respect at least the principles behind that.

I'm surprised some people here are so hostile to the "purists". It's like a vegetarian refusing to eat vegan food, it makes absolutely no sense, and it's hypocritical in a bizarre way.

I don't think anyone is saying replace Ubuntu with Gobuntu, simply make the hardware fully compatible.

[Sunnz]

Thanks keyboardashtray for helping explaining the idea.

Might I add to the point of that the idea is not to request Gobuntu to replace Ubuntu, but simply support Gobuntu - as long as Gobuntu works then Ubuntu automatically works as well, there are not extra work to make Ubuntu to work.

Dell can offer both choices when you customise a computer... as far as I know of, even for WinPC, you have a choice between XP and Vista anyway, so asking the choice of Gobuntu and Ubuntu isn't an unreasonable request.

[Sasank]

I completely agree. Thats the beauty of a true 100% Free Software supporting hardware.

If it can work with Gobuntu, it can work with any other OS, free or non-free.

[Frak]

Very soon there will be at least 1 of each peice of hardware that has an OSS driver.
Intel - Network, Audio, Graphics, etc.
RaLink - Network: Wifi, Ground
ATi - High Quality Graphics

[tehhaxorr]

I'm not an OSS purist at all, i just want my computer to do what i want it to, Linux does that.

[removed]