Ubuntu

Bug #1 (liberation)
Comment #391

Comment 391 for bug 1

Revision history for this message

Allen Graham (allenggraham) wrote on 2007-07-06: Re: [Bug 1] suggested patch - search engine for "free hardware" systems

#391

Thanks OK Amir !
Lots of us are equally curious. With the latest forays into cross-licensing
and other such ilk it would seem apparent that "proprietary drivers" will
be ground into dust. There are many "free" operating systems, most will just
"hack' the drivers, or come up with a workaround. The problem (good) is that
Ubuntu plays by all of the rules so it requires the user (me, you etc) to
employ other methods or simply sign a "E.U.L.A." that may be distasteful.
Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, S.I.S. and many more have created this problem for
wireless drivers. I have two machines with Broadcom, wireless, chips, what a
nuisance !
When building my working system I shopped for parts that have free drivers.
Atheros on wireless etc. There may be 40 million Linux users and growing,
most of us are technically minded and help many others make decisions on
buying. So, we have an influence. Note that I've found it easy to install
Ubuntu 7.04 in Dell laptops.
regards,
Allen

On 7/6/07, Amir E. Aharoni <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> On 05/07/07, Mark Shuttleworth <email address hidden> wrote:
> > Even a really good vendor like Intel still has the odd propietary blob
> > (on the way out, but still there).
>
> Sorry to wander further off-topic, but this really intrigued me:
>
> What do you mean by "on the way out"? My primary concern now is the
> wireless drivers. Most laptops that i could find where i live have
> Intel a/b/g wireless cards, which Ubuntu considers restricted. When i
> popped a 7.04 live CD into a Toshiba laptop in a store, that's the
> only restricted driver it complained about. I can feel more content if
> i buy this one knowing that some day there'll be a true free driver.
>
> However, when i googled for "linux wireless driver blob" i couldn't
> find anything substantial. There were mostly stories on making one for
> OpenBSD and they also said that it will probably not work for Linux.
>
> Or did Intel announce that they are releasing the source?
>
> (Please excuse my cluelessness. I know that it's all hard work and i
> don't expect kernel hackers to produce a driver just for me; i'm just
> a curious monkey tring to follow the Free Software ethic.)
>
> --
> Microsoft has a majority market share
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
>http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/allen.onpizzazz/my_photos
>http://www.speedtest.net/result/63662323.png

Thanks OK Amir !
Lots of us are equally curious.  With the latest forays into cross-licensing
and other such ilk it would seem apparent that "proprietary drivers"  will
be ground into dust. There are many "free" operating systems, most will just
"hack' the drivers, or come up with a workaround. The problem (good) is that
Ubuntu plays by all of the rules so it requires the user (me, you etc) to
employ other methods or simply sign a "E.U.L.A." that may be distasteful.
Intel, Nvidia, Broadcom, S.I.S. and many more have created this problem  for
wireless drivers. I have two machines with Broadcom, wireless, chips, what a
nuisance !
When building my working system I shopped for parts that have free drivers.
Atheros on wireless etc. There may be 40 million Linux users and growing,
most of us are technically minded and help many others make decisions on
buying.  So, we have an influence. Note that I've found it easy to install
Ubuntu 7.04 in Dell laptops.
regards,
Allen

On 7/6/07, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.aharoni@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 05/07/07, Mark Shuttleworth <mark@canonical.com> wrote:
> > Even a really good vendor like Intel still has the odd propietary blob
> > (on the way out, but still there).
>
> Sorry to wander further off-topic, but this really intrigued me:
>
> What do you mean by "on the way out"? My primary concern now is the
> wireless drivers. Most laptops that i could find where i live have
> Intel a/b/g wireless cards, which Ubuntu considers restricted. When i
> popped a 7.04 live CD into a Toshiba laptop in a store, that's the
> only restricted driver it complained about. I can feel more content if
> i buy this one knowing that some day there'll be a true free driver.
>
> However, when i googled for "linux wireless driver blob" i couldn't
> find anything substantial. There were mostly stories on making one for
> OpenBSD and they also said that it will probably not work for Linux.
>
> Or did Intel announce that they are releasing the source?
>
> (Please excuse my cluelessness. I know that it's all hard work and i
> don't expect kernel hackers to produce a driver just for me; i'm just
> a curious monkey tring to follow the Free Software ethic.)
>
> --
> Microsoft has a majority market share
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

-- 
>http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/allen.onpizzazz/my_photos
>http://www.speedtest.net/result/63662323.png