There are already several replies to this which I haven't read yet. So I might be missing or repeating something. But I'm going to reply anyways.
On Sun, Nov 5, 2017 at 9:48 AM, <userbeit...@abwesend.de> wrote: > > I understand that the development of FreeDOS needs to be free as in freedom > as in open source. It makes sense. At minimum, you need a free "BASE". If you can't even download (redistribute) the bare minimum to get running, it's almost worthless. Of course, being able to use, study, and modify also greatly helps in fixing bugs and adding new features, optimizations, flexibility, etc. > BUT I also understand that sometimes open source is not possible. I come > from Linux and I use Debian. It is a the distribution devoted to freedom and > open source, but it doesn't just work. On many systems it needs a lot of > help to even get going in the first place. Ironic considering FSF calls Debian "non-free" for recommending and including binary blobs, among other things. I know they are "mostly" Free, but most isn't enough to FSF. So just by pointing to non-free software, that pisses the FSF off. And, in fairness, if we have Free tools, why are we forcibly (exclusively) relying on others? The FSF, GNU, et al. have contributed more than others to Free software, freely given to all, so I don't understand our reluctance to do so. I understand that not everyone is a programmer, but overall it's best not to rely on proprietary software if you have a choice. It's just too locked down, too hard to find, only works on select versions of OSes, etc. > What I'm saying is that you might consider allowing additional software, > either in the main distribution, or - which would be even better: to allow > the addition of easy to set-up additional repositories, so that users can > easily get freeware that is closed source, or even shareware. Anything that > has a license allowing redistribution. Which is not TurboC or Turbo Pascal, for instance. And many other things disallow redistribution (mostly for non-existing reasons). It makes no sense to me, but you can't argue with a brick wall. > This way the main FreeDOS distribution stays open and free (as in freedom), > while allowing the user to add freeware/shareware etc. by utilizing the main > free distribution. At some point it's pointless to try to be Free if everything else is locked down. Even FSF has a hard time finding machines with Free BIOSes, no firmware binary blobs, etc. This needs to get better, not worse. Some of it is lack of time, but a lot of it is just irrational stubbornness upstream. There's no reason to keep exclusive control if it gives you zero practical advantage (besides ego, which is useless). You shouldn't punish end users or make their lives harder just for vain reasons. > I also use Gentoo Linux. On Gentoo there are some ebuilds (the package files > for the package manager, which is called portage) that will install even > proprietory software, keeping it a part of the Gentoo package system. Proprietary is probably not going away, but let's not encourage people to be locked down and shackled by horrible licenses. It's more than a little inconvenient, it makes getting things done harder than it should be. > From a users point of view this is encouraged and highly appreciated. > > Again, I completely get it that the main FreeDOS operating system and system > software such as drivers and utilities should be free and open. We have a lot of excellent Free development tools, so we need more programmers. Any new work should focus on freedom (and optionally selling software as a service, if needed). We don't need more hurdles making things inconvenient for us. I know we don't have Free solutions to literally everything, but we shouldn't encourage laziness if we can actively fix or avoid the problem in the first place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
