[GNUz] GNU/Linux ...

[Nick Rout]

Good post Jim,


On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 10:11:26 +1200
Jim Cheetham <jim.gnuz@inode.co.nz> wrote:

> InfoHelp wrote:
> > One day, I imagine, we could get both Linus & RMS sitting down together 
> > to forge a new name/brand for the 'Revolution OS' - and it wouldn't 
> 
> The combination of "GNU software" and "the Linux kernel" will not make a 
> useable operating system. There are lots of GNU software packages 
> around, but not enough to make anything significantly better than a 
> developer's workstation.
> 
> As a superset :-
> "Open Source" software plus "the Linux kernel", where "Open Source" 
> means "GNU project, plus everything else" *does* make a decent OS. 
> Debian (and possibly Gentoo, I expect so but don't know for sure).

Gentoo's social contract says;

"Gentoo Linux is and will remain Free Software 

We will release our contributions to Gentoo Linux as free software, under
the GNU General Public License version 2 (or later, at our discretion.)
Any external contributions to Gentoo Linux (in the form of
freely-distributable sources or binaries) may be incorporated into
Gentoo Linux provided that we are legally entitled to do so. However,
Gentoo Linux will never depend upon a piece of software unless it
conforms to the GNU General Public License, GNU Lesser General Public
License or some other license approved by the Open Source Initiative
(OSI.) 

Note: We are considering extending the above clause to require that all core
Gentoo Linux components must conform to a license approved by the OSI
and Free Software Foundation (FSF.)"

By that they mean that the unique parts that make up Gentoo are
free/open. ie portage, its unique initscript system etc etc. However the
portage tree can and does contain commercial software. You can emerge
vmware-workstation - you just need to go to vmware to pay if you want to
use it.

you can also emerge win32codecs (as a pre-requisite of mplayer). And
decss or whatever it is called. You can emerge opera (but it isn't
registered). you can emerge realplayer (but you have to first go to the
real site and accept the license to download the software).

Some stuff has even been removed from the portage tree over licensing
issues, eg winex-transgaming-cvs (but thats another debate)


> 
> As a larger superset :-
> "Available Free Of Charge" software plus "Open Source & Linux" makes a 
> much more "end user/beginner" OS - Mandrake free distribution.
> 
> As an even larger subset :-
> "Not very expensive" software plus the above, makes the "professional 
> edition" versions of Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE and so on - generally 
> regarded as the "best" for non-expert end users.

And Xandros for example, which includes (in the more expensive editions)
stuff like crossover office to allow using ms office, and lots of
non-free (read kernel-tainting) device drivers, like the free (of charge)
but not open (source) nvidia drivers.

It'd be nice if people could be taught to do without ms office (whats
OOo's license by the way?). It'd be nice if nVidia open sourced their
drivers. It's be nice if hardware manufacturers ALL contributed to the
kernel. But the best way to spread lnux at the moment, beyond the
geek/enthusiasts corner, is to produce workable systems. And that means
some non ideal software.

Of course that doesn't man we can't advocate for change. I'm all in
favour of that.

> 
> And finally, jumping the shark in terms of end-user suitability :- 
> "Microsoft". 'Nuff said.
> 
> I compromise down at the Debian end of life, pretty much any Open Source 
> license (including BSD, which does not prevent a commercial entity from 
> taking a copy, modifying it, and charging large fees, giving *nothing* 
> back to the original developer. Isn't that more free than the GPL?)
> 
> I also occasionally spend real money on a piece of software that suits 
> my needs better than Open Source, or Free. I've registered the Opera 
> browser, a couple of games, I bought Quake ...
> 
> Using the term "GNU/Linux" for a distribution implies strongly that GNU 
> plus Linux is all that's necessary. I don't believe that's true for 
> anyone except RMS himself. I admire his strength of character and 
> commitment to his ideals (he won't watch DVDs or listen to MP3 music, 
> because there is no "free/libre" software that does that),

I chuckle about us watching the dvd of "Revolution OS" at CLUG.

>I just don't 
> 100% agree with them.

Hear hear.


> 
> -jim
> 
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-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>