Re: Question of Aiding and Abetting Proprietary (or non-free) Software in GNU projects

[Yasuaki Kudo]

I mentioned something similar in a Guix mailing list but my opinion is this, 
quoting what I heard from someone else:

Ideas divide us but necessity unites us.

If Free Software is indeed indispensable (which I think it is), then we do 
everything to fulfill it.   I understand now that there are both optimists and 
pessimists regarding the mixed usage (and we haven't even talked about the 
hardware itself?) of Free and Non-Free.  I am definately an optimist here but 
Is it possible to put these ideas aside as a matter of academic interest for 
those who have the time?

Ironically as it may be, where there is an overwhelming majority of pessimists, 
the optimists who wish to openly discuss how to mix free and non-free are 
forced to create a separate community (which will welcome everyone, including 
the pessimists).

-Yasu


> On May 18, 2022, at 00:38, Andrew Yu via libreplanet-discuss 
> <libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hey Greg, I really disagree on this issue ...
> 
> It is really easy, when a user requests for help using nonfree drivers
> in Guix, to warn them about the dangers.  This ensures that users are
> indeed informed, and would seek hardware that works well with fully free
> software in the future if they care (well, if we can't make them care
> there isn't much we can do in any case).
> 
> Users generally need a soft transition.  Although in the best case we
> would expressly and directly get a user to switch to something fully
> free, many are incapable of transitioning at such immediacy.  Many
> people's jobs require nonfree software, and "get a better job" and/or
> activism against such requirements, though nice, are hard and take a lot
> of effort.  Before these are met, it is much better for the user to be
> on a mostly free system with minimal nonfree software than a mostly
> nonfree system with minimal free software.  The same goes for firmware,
> though finding hardware that works well with free software is indeed
> generally easier than getting rid of bad work/government requirements.
> In any case, using nonfree software/firmware on an otherwise free system
> is in my opinion much preferred to using a nonfree system.
> 
> Although, I believe that "Emacs on Windows" and "Nonfree firmware in
> Guix" should indeed be treated similarly and be kept sepeate from the
> core community as it's not our core mission.
> 
> -a (stealing greg-style signatures)
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