The real point
Posted May 16, 2006 9:49 UTC (Tue) by
jpetso (guest, #36230)
In reply to:
The real point by einstein
Parent article:
GPL concerns halt Kororaa live CD (NewsForge)
> For me the point is to use, advocate and support the best all-around OS
> available. IMHO that's Linux.
If it were just for the usability, eye-candy, and overall quality of the
OS, I'd probably go with MacOS X. The only real argument for Linux is
that it does what the user wants, it can be extended by anyone, and can't
be controlled by any company with evil intentions. This is all due to the
freedom of its code, and the most important thing for Linux (IMHO) is to
preserve that freedom.
Closed source drivers are taking away the developers' control over Linux,
and are a threat to the very essence of what Linux is. If you say Windows
is crappy, take a sec to think about how it was possible for Linux to
grow better. The reason is not better developers or more effective
marketing, the reason is the freedom of the code. Not providing
ATI/nVidia drivers doesn't kill Linux, but depending on closed source
software does.
An interesting question would be, which arguments do you bring for saying
that Linux is the best all-around OS available? Do you really think code
freedom doesn't matter and it's just the technical excellency? Well.
> The advice was always to use the older radeons and the in-kernel DRI.
> Every time I tried to seriously use the GPL'd radeon driver,
> I suffered lockups.
Well, at least for me, when I switched from ATI's Radeon driver to the
GPL one, all the lockups went away, so it may be better or worse for
different people. But that's not the point. Open source drivers can be
improved (yes, also by nVidia and ATI themselves, once they decide they
don't really need them closed) while depending on binary bubbles makes
you depend on the vendor.
Even if nVidia is creating fine drivers today, who says they won't quit
supporting your card in 3 years and only provide drivers for newer cards?
I don't have to worry about that if the driver is open.
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