[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

Thu Mar 24 19:27:10 CET 2011

Ahmad Samir a écrit :
+>
+> On 24 March 2011 02:58, Dexter Morgan<dmorganec at gmail.com>  wrote:
+>> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 1:38 AM, Ahmad Samir<ahmadsamir3891 at gmail.com>  wrote:
+>>>
+>>> Has the Free DVD in Mandriva ever contained non-free firmware?
+>>
+>> No, but the question is more , will we provide a "non free" dvd iso,
+>> and this question is i think interesting.
+>>
+>
+> It can't be "free" and have "non-free" firmware... previously the
+> firmware only were on the Live CD's. I am not sure anything has been
+> changed in that regard (i.e. I didn't see the matter get discussed
+> yet).
+
+Whatever it's called, it doesn't make much practical sense to exclude 
+important drivers from the dvd.  Sure, ideological correctness could 
+prevail, but I see no problem adding a non-free directory including only 
+important drivers, such as video, wi-fi.  Note that some distros are 
+reported to put such drivers in their main free repository, which could 
+also be done.
+Let's face it, one of the best ways to discourage new (Mageia) Linux 
+users is to have an iso that doesn't work "out of the box".
+Even experienced users/programmers find that frustrating -- how do you 
+think that ordinary users will respond ?
+So I think that there should be an explicit policy to include, on all 
+official isos, drivers for all (common) hardware.  If there is no 
+reliable "free" driver available, so include non-free.
+Whether such drivers are put in a non-free repository is another 
+question.  Personally I'd just put them in core until a reliable free 
+driver becomes available, but that isn't critical to a working system.
+
+my 2 cents :)
+
+-- 
+André
+