[lug] Midrange Linux Laptops

[Davide Del Vento]

> I bought a System76 desktop 2-3 years ago. I was slightly disappointed
> because they installed ubuntu on it, and it needed proprietary drivers. I am
> very much a free software type of guy, so was put out by this.

Well, for desktop probably they could have done a better job on
finding hw supported by free drivers. For laptops, I think it's much
harder, if not plain impossible to run everything without some
proprietary driver.
I am very much a free software guy too, so I feel your pain. But I
think we are like Don Quixote and the windmills: even the kernel
itself (and Debian!), nowadays, contains several pieces of proprietary
blobs, so should we give up it? Somebody will say "who cares, I need
something that works". Somebody else will say: "who cares, if it's not
free I don't want it - if it doesn't work, I won't use it - my father
didn't have a computer at all, I can live without this piece of hw".
It's an hard question for me, since I really wanted something free
(granted, like in speech!) but often I really need something that
works.
See here for details:
http://libresoft.es/Members/herraiz/blog/linux-is-not-free-software

Have a nice weekend,
Davide