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Proprietary Blobs and the Pursuit of a Free Kernel
jammag writes "Ever since the GNewSense team pointed out that the Linux kernel contains proprietary firmware blobs, the question of whether a given distro is truly free software has gotten messier, notes Linux pundit Bruce Byfield. The FSF changed the definition of a free distribution, and a search for how to respond to this new definition is now well underway. Who wins and what solutions are implemented could have a major effect on the future of free and open source software. Debian has its own solution (by allowing users to choose their download), as do Ubuntu and Fedora (they include the offending firmware by default but make it possible to remove it). Meanwhile, the debate over firmware rages on. What resolves this issue?"
A free Java is now in Debian.
Here's your problem: Open Source is not Free Software.
"Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in."
"Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer. Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
* The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
* The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
* The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
* The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this. "
Put identity in the browser.
RedHat Enterprise Linux is not under the GPL. Fedora is not under the GPL. Ubuntu is not under the GPL. Certain parts of all of these are under the GPL, however they are distributed with some GPL-incompatible components (e.g. Apache). The 'mere aggregation' clause of the GPL means that the GPL does not apply to any of these.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
For me the issue is not, do I get the source code or not? [...] But, if I do not have the right to hack it
Back in the day, Battle for Wesnoth didn't do anything with horizontal scroll events. It had a scheme for moving your viewport around in 2D using only one scroll wheel, which sucked and was hard to figure out. I fixed that; when it sees a horizontal scroll, it switches to the intuitive one-map-axis-per-wheel-axis. I would've hated to fix that without source, and I would've hated keeping using a broken scroll model.
In Nexuiz, at the time, there was no way to handicap yourself (to make the game fun against much weaker opponents). I wrote three lines of Quake C; now you can. How would I do that without source?
If you use sshfs, you might have noticed that it clears all port forwarding; if you've read the manual, you might also know that there's no option to disable it. I actually want sshfs to do port and X forwarding; what do I do? Grab the source code, grep for ClearAllForwardings, comment out four lines, off I go.
In most cases, being able to hack stuff requires source code. In all cases, it makes it a hell of a lot easier; often, so much that it goes from "infeasible" to "very easy".