al3xu5 said on Wed, 14 Apr 2021 19:53:59 +0200

>Tue, 13 Apr 2021 22:03:02 +0200 - tito <farmatito@???>:
>
><snip>
>Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:02:54 -0400 - Steve Litt
><slitt@???>:

<snip>

>[ Extra OT comment START
>
>> Stating it the inverse way, I HATE these installs that bomb because
>> there's no FSF-satisfying drivers, firmware or software to handle my
>> new laptop's weird hardware. And those distros that do that, their
>> mailing lists always say "well just put in a thumb drive with the
>> drivers/firmware!" How the KFDWOJMFOW do I know which drivers and
>> firmware? I think free software purist snobs drive more people back
>> to Windows than cleanse people of their non-free ways.
>
>
>I agree in principle, although I believe the question is more complex.
>
>Premise 1:

<snip premise 1, stated better than I could have stated it>

>
>Premise 2: For me it does not detect to talk about Windows vs Linux or
>distro_a vs Distro_B: it is not about "selling" something, nor to
>"vote" to establish what is better or worse.

The more market share Linux has, the more hardware vendors will be
pressured to release API info to Linux devs, or at least write a
quality proprietary driver/blob/firmware. Brother does it. Radeon does
it. They don't do it to be nice guys, they do it to sell more product,
because Linux has a market share.

See this article I wrote these two articles after encountering extreme
hardware/Linux clashes, and various purists blowing off all those with
uncooperative hardware, including Linus Torvalds, who was considering
getting rid of my one route to wifi in 2006, ndiswrapper:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm#_You_Bet_Im_Mad

http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200612/200612.htm#_lifeAfterWindows


>Premise 3: The "pure" distros (those who do not provide "non-free"
>software) should bring users to increase their awareness: even if this
>is an important and shareable goal, the result will hardly be achieved
>in this way...

I'll go a step farther. Such distros should, on the first screen of all
their install methods, warn the user that *their* distro has no
non-free drivers/blobs/firmware and might not work for the user's
hardware, but this is not true of many other distros. Let the user it's
not GNU/Linux causing this, it's the particular distro.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques