Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 27, 2017 15:10 UTC (Wed) by TMM (guest, #79398)
Parent article: Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

I don't know how much this matters but I moved to Fedora because I want the best free software currently available. Recent kernels all the time was a major factor for me to migrate.

I select hardware specifically in such a way that I can do this with confidence (or in some cases delay hardware upgrades until hardware becomes available that has free, upstreamed drivers).

To me it would be a slap in the face if after the effort and money involved in purchasing and selecting this hardware that does the right thing I'm not getting the benefits.

I specifically chose Fedora because I believed it would NOT delay upgrades to appease non-free driver makers.

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Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 27, 2017 17:49 UTC (Wed) by patrick_g (subscriber, #44470) [Link] (4 responses)

> I want the best free software currently available. Recent kernels all the time was a major factor for me to migrate.

Sorry to ask the obvious but why don't you use Arch?

Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 27, 2017 19:32 UTC (Wed) by karkhaz (subscriber, #99844) [Link] (3 responses)

Users who only want to run free software might avoid Arch Linux as it ships blobs and proprietary software in the official repositories, with no automated way to distinguish them from free software. See "Pragmatism" principle in Arch's philosophies [0]:

> The large number of packages and build scripts in the various Arch Linux repositories offer free and open source software for those who prefer it, as well as proprietary software packages for those who embrace functionality over ideology.

and also this from the comparison with other Linux distributions [1]:

> Debian has a more vehement stance on free software but still includes non-free software in its non-free repos. Arch is more lenient, and therefore inclusive, concerning non-free packages as defined by GNU

[0] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux#Pragmatism
[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_compared_to_oth...

Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 28, 2017 7:39 UTC (Thu) by ssl (guest, #98177) [Link]

If properitary software in arch bothers you, you can use Parabola[0]'s overriding package[1], (or just migrate to it.)

[0](https://wiki.parabola.nu/Main_Page)

[1](https://www.parabola.nu/packages/libre/any/your-freedom/)

Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 28, 2017 7:42 UTC (Thu) by jospoortvliet (guest, #33164) [Link] (1 responses)

I guess openSUSE Tumbleweed would be the choice that fits the requirements best then... more up to date than fedora (frequently beating Arch) and non-free stuff separated out. And no fscks given for NVIDIA compatibility of newer kernels...

Fedora's foundations meet proprietary drivers

Posted Sep 28, 2017 22:21 UTC (Thu) by TMM (guest, #79398) [Link]

Thanks, I may look at tumbleweed if delaying updates for Nvidia becomes the norm for Fedora.