[gentoo-amd64] Re: amd64 list, still useful? Was: btrfs

[Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net>]

Frank Peters posted on Thu, 29 May 2014 22:44:05 -0400 as excerpted:

> On Fri, 30 May 2014 02:04:39 +0000 (UTC)
> Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> wrote:
> 
>> FWIW, I'm no-multilib as well, but I guess for a different reason.
>> 
>> I don't do proprietary [...]
>>
> It's not just proprietary software that lags behind.  I continue to
> encounter FOSS packages from time to time that are still 32-bit only.
> 
> One example, for audio enthusiasts, is the excellent AudioCutter:
> http://www.virtualworlds.de/AudioCutter/

I'm not saying 32-bit-only FLOSS isn't out there, only that by now, and 
actually from 2010 or so (to pick the turn of the decade as a convenient 
date, one could actually say by 2008 or so), it's increasingly non-
mainstream.  There's the occasional exception, but for most people, 
either their 32-bit concerns are proprietary only, or there's a more 
mainstream 64-bit alternative.

Luckily for me, my interests are mainstream enough...

> (There are many other examples but at this moment I can't recall any
> specific names so you'll just have to trust me).
> 
> However, when it comes to the PDF file format it is hard to beat the
> proprietary Foxit Reader.  With FOSS only evince comes close but evince
> lacks a lot of capability and seems to be buggy in places.

I should explicitly mention that I'm all for people making their own 
decisions regarding proprietary.  Because I know if someone had tried to 
push me before I was ready, even while I was preparing for my ultimate 
switch, the results would have been nothing but negative.  So everyone 
must move when they are ready, and if that time never comes, well...  But 
at the same time, that decision is behind me personally, and there's 
simply no way I'm going back to the days of proprietary.

As for pdf, I'm running (semantic-desktop-stripped) kde and okular, and 
have been reasonably happy with it.  Where I've seen people complain 
about PDF readability or compatibility and have checked, okular has done 
well enough for me, to the point I never saw what they were complaining 
about.

Meanwhile, even if I did find some PDF nothing I could run would handle, 
that would simply mean I'd not read that pdf, tho if it was worth it I 
could envision taking it to the library to read or to a printer to have 
them print it out or something.  But I wouldn't install anything 
proprietary on my own systems to read it.  There are too many other 
things to do in the world to worry about missing what's in one pdf, 
especially if it meant my freedom was on the line.

> AMD64 should be the standard but many projects refuse to update since
> reliance on multi-lib is so much simpler.  As a consequence we 64-bit
> purists are at a disadvantage.

True at times.  Luckily, those times aren't so frequent these days.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman