On Mon, Dec 10, 2007 at 10:18:47AM -0500, Richard Stallman wrote: > One question particularly relevant for this list is why I don't > recommend OpenBSD. It is not about what the system allows. (Any > general purpose system allows doing anything at all.) It is about > what the system suggests to the user.
[...] > >From what I have heard, OpenBSD does not contain non-free software > (though I am not sure whether it contains any non-free firmware > blobs). However, its ports system does suggest non-free programs, or > at least so I was told when I looked for some BSD variant that I could > recommend. I therefore exercise my freedom of speech by not including > OpenBSD in the list of systems that I recommend to the public. [...] > The fact that OpenBSD is not a variant of GNU is not ethically > important. If OpenBSD did not suggest non-free programs, I would > recommend it along with the free GNU/Linux distros. You do realize that that specific stance is *completely* hypocritical. You do not recommend OpenBSD because its ports system states upfront that there *are* non-free pieces of software that works under it. But you recommend Linux distros, even though every one out there knows there are *more* pieces of non-software that work in it. Even though Linux contains hooks to allow for binary blobs, or is careful to stay compatible with binary drivers from nvidia and ATI for people to choose from. But noooo, linux distros are white as a cygnus, since they don't suggest out-right you can install non-free software. They just happen to make it very easy, and you can just simply run into extended distros and sites that make it *as trivial* to install non-free stuff as the OpenBSD ports system. Heck, *most linux distros out there* have a non-free section as well. You *do know* that the non-free section of the OpenBSD ports tree is labelled as such, don't you ? you do know we forbid redistribution on CD-Rom of various pieces of software. Hence, non-free stuff does not make it to the official CD-Rom. It does not even make it to the ftp site. This includes such prominent stuff as sun's java, which is not free... and which is probably one of the most commonly installed linux software out there... along with binary drivers for nvidia cards and other hardware. Hypocrit.
