Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo internal structure

[Christian Birchinger <joker@gentoo.org>]

Offering a choice was always a very important thing in Gentoo.
Forcing the user into freesoftware will only make them switch.
The people who like that zealotery already use Debian anyway.

The choice is the most important thing for me.

Personaly i hate closed source stuff installed on my machine.
I dislike Nvidias binary only drivers and would never buy
hardware which requires me to use proprietary software.

That's my personal choice and not a reason to suggest ripping
out Nvidia drivers from Gentoo. The user should have the choice
to use it or not.

On Sat, Nov 22, 2003 at 01:06:05AM -0600, Matthew Kennedy wrote:
> Sven Vermeulen <swift@gentoo.org> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, Nov 21, 2003 at 09:16:19AM -0600, Matthew Kennedy wrote:
> >> Personally, I am only interested in supporting and using free
> >> software, so...
> >>
> >> The best solution is just to remove support for anything non-free in
> >> portage and to also remove any non-free software from our mirrors.
> >> Let some other external project step up to the plate and provide a
> >> non-free overlay if they wish.
> >
> > I disagree. Give the users who want the chance to not use "non-free"
> > software, but also give the others the chance to use non-free software.
> >
> > I think you'll get a lot of gamers against you when you tell them you don't
> > want them to easily install their favorite non-free game :)
> 
> [...]
> 
> Jon, Sven,
> 
> Obviously, its more important that the "gamers" are not upset by a
> single line change in make.conf.  The principle of building a Free
> software distribution has got to be less important than that.
> 
> Seriously though, it is my impression that you may be surprised how
> many folks care that their box uses free software only.  You might
> want to check the Debian news out of late.  There's a proposal to do
> away with(?) non-free in their distro (ie. clause 5. in their social
> contract would be removed).
> 
> I suppose I am dismayed that we are failing to promote free software
> over proprietary software.
> 
> Matt
> --
> Matthew Kennedy
> Gentoo Linux Developer

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