[BLUG] About the article

[Michel Salim]

Simon Ruiz wrote:
> You have a good point, though there's always gNewSense, the FSF's version of Ubuntu.
>  
>   
And there's the Virtual RMS package you can install on Debian-based
systems too. It will output the list of packages that are not
DFSG-compliant (haven't had a Debian-based system for a while, so I
don't know how up-to-date it is)
> There's been a huge debate within the Ubuntu community about just such a thing. It's become quite visible in the move towards the default for Feisty which will be that, if your hardware supports it, you will get Beryl. This has been incredibly heated on both sides, really, and I can see both sides arguments equally well.
>   
Going off on a tangent here, but has anyone tried Mandriva's Metisse? It
seems to me to be more practical than Compiz/Beryl.

Fedora comes with Compiz installed by default as well (Beryl is in
Extras -- people are not really happy with its configuration tools and
its move away from GConf, it seems from the mailing list discussions).
In Fedora Core 6 you have to explicitly enable it though, through a
preference applet.

>  
> Mark Shuttleworth's position seems to have won out, though not without a fight. He believes that since you've paid for the hardware, you should have full use of it, even if that involves using non-free binary drivers. He doesn't seem to think compromise on anything above the basic hardware access level is acceptable though. He articulates it much better at http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/84 
>   
The other argument is that if you make it too easy for end-users they
would never press for better cooperation from hardware vendors. Does
Ubuntu require explicitly enabling non-free drivers (perhaps prompting
the user to do so at install time)?

Myself, the experience of wrestling with flaky ATi and Broadcomm chips
on my previous laptop made me pick a more Linux-friendly solution this
time (the only sticking point is the ipw3945 wireless driver, which
depends on a non-libre userland daemon). If more Linux users vote with
their wallet we might have more of a say.

Then again, we probably would have to wait for an OLPC-esque laptop to
be released targeting the average laptop user for things to change. A
vertically integrated solution, ala Apple harware + software.

-- 
Michel