[lug] Midrange Linux Laptops

[Stephen Queen]

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Davide Del Vento
<davide.del.vento at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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
>

I have noticed this trend that over time more and more proprietary code is
slipping into things. I also know that you and I have also compromised for
the sake of convenience. We both are using gmail.

I believe that it has everything to do with control and distribution
of information. If
the tools we use to gather, correlate, and distribute information are
not free. Then
the information itself is not free.

I think in the end we'll more than likely lose. Most people don't even care. My
children don't care (they are all adults). There are people on this
list who do not care.
My wife only puts up with my insistence to use as much free software
as possible.
I think she kind of resents it, but tolerates it. Yet I'm not ready to
throw in the towel
and buy an Apple.

Steve