[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

Fri Mar 25 17:58:50 CET 2011

On 03/25/2011 12:34 PM, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
+> My two cents as an user:
+>
+>> Presumably, FLOSS supporters are satisfied with the state of the current
+>> ISOs, and https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=523 would address
+>> extending install functionality without changing the content of the
+>> existing ISOs, which should be an improvement over where we are now
+>> without corrupting the FLOSS purity of the existing ISOs.
+> Not all "FLOSS supporters" believe that ISOs should be "pure".
+> I would label myself a FLOSS partisan (having contributed in FLOSS
+> projects for 10 years), and yet I don't really make a fuss if an
+> ISO contains non-free software, especially if such software is
+> necessary for good use of some peripherals...
+
+Neither do I.
+
+> By labelling "FLOSS supporters" only the partisans of aforementioned
+> "purity" (a term which, in any political context, should really give you
+> shivers), you are making the community as a whole a disservice. It is
+> not "the purists" vs. "the realists", or some other caricatural
+> reduction of reality.
+
+The labeling was for typographical convenience, simply a way to 
+differentiate one camp in this discussion from the other, and was pretty 
+obviously not a part of the intrinsic arguments.
+
+I'm on neither side in this; my interest is in having the install 
+support wireless networking, which has nothing to do with whether there 
+is one ISO or two.  All the necessary files are already in the distro, I 
+just want the install to use them if they're available.  That is not a 
+FLOSS/non-FLOSS/sorta-FLOSS issue.  I install cooker/cauldron only, and 
+I haven't installed from an ISO since I got involved with cooker except 
+as an occasional test.
+
+I don't care how many ISOs there are, or whether the installer gets 
+these files from the moon.  I just figure I have a better chance of 
+seeing this implemented if I point out that two ISOs steps on as few 
+toes as possible, given the current contents of the DVDs.  If you want 
+to take up cudgels about merging them for an additional 1% or so of user 
+experience, be my guest.
+
+
+
+