:: Re: [Dng] straw poll, non-free firm…
Top Page
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Apollia
Date:  
To: dng
New-Topics: [Dng] Pie in the sky: Devuan on nonfree phones and tablets
Subject: Re: [Dng] straw poll, non-free firmware for installers
On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 3:26 PM, Franco Lanza <nextime@???> wrote:

> I think we can draw a line in this discussion this way:
>
> Daniel will implement the installer in the way he was saying,
> adding non-free firmwares limited to the ones that if missed are
> blocking for the installer ( so, nothing more than few firmwares for
> things like network cards or wifi, for example ), with the choice for
> the user to select them but disabled by default, and making the user
> knowing that he is selecting a non-free firmware.
>
> This will be our default installer.
>
> When our infrastructure will use that installer to build the iso images,
> a script will also build another image with all those non-free firmware
> removed, and this will be our "free" image.
>
> Both will be marked as "official", and the name of the generated isos
> will be something like devuan-jessie-...-full.iso and
> devuan-jessie-...-free.iso
>
> This way i hope we will make all happy.
>
>
> --
>
> Franco (nextime) Lanza
> Lonate Pozzolo (VA) - Italy
> SIP://casa@???
> web: http://www.nexlab.net
>
> NO TCPA: http://www.no1984.org
> you can download my public key at:
> http://danex.nexlab.it/nextime.asc || Key Servers
> Key ID = D6132D50
> Key fingerprint = 66ED 5211 9D59 DA53 1DF7 4189 DFED F580 D613 2D50
> -----------------------------------
> echo
> 16i[q]sa[ln0=aln100%Pln100/snlbx]sbA0D212153574F444E49572045535520454D20454B414D204F54204847554F4E452059415020544F4E4E4143205345544147204C4C4942snlbxq
> | dc
> -----------------------------------
>


Sounds good to me!

The only thing I'd change is the names of the ISOs, since "full" vs. "free"
might imply to some people that the "free" version is incomplete and
inferior to the "full" version.

I would prefer to imply that the non-libre version is the flawed inferior
version.

So, maybe names like:

devuan-jessie-...-nonfree-nonlibre.iso
and
devuan-jessie-...-freelibre.iso


I definitely agree with having both versions, even though I try to avoid
anything non-libre.

I would love to switch to purely libre hardware if I had the money, but, I
don't, and most people in the world might not either, judging by this page:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats

So, I definitely think it's best for Devuan to be installable on as wide a
variety of hardware as possible.


I would find it particularly amusing if it were possible to install Devuan
on an iPhone. :-) Or anything else the average person wouldn't expect
Linux to work on.

Someone gave me an iPhone 4S a few years ago in the hope that I would use
it to make a living writing proprietary software. Since I wasn't willing
to do that, it's not much use to me, so, maybe I'll experiment with trying
to get Devuan to work on it someday. :-) (Unless I hear that it's totally
unfeasible.)

Probably just a daydream, at least for now, because I have so many other
things I need to get done at the moment, and also because it's very likely
beyond my current skills. I haven't yet even attempted to build _any_
Linux from scratch yet, though I still intend to someday.

Best wishes,
Apollia