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0 pointsmichaelmrose7y ago0 comments

So you have scatter information about how to actually make guix useful to a large number of users who over 13 different platforms that people use and hope users can use google search to reassemble said info.

This is inefficient and poorly considered. When my family got their first modern computer in my teens it ran windows. When we bought a better one so I could explore computer animation it ran windows. My first computer I paid for dual booted linux/windows. My computers now exclusively run linux.

I switched to free software because it was better ideologically but more importantly because I can presently use it to accomplish my goals.

Dual booting is surely inferior to just running free software from a software freedom standpoint but if I couldn't dual boot I might not have bothered at all.

Making nonfree sofware require an affirmative act beyond apt-install foo is a good step deleting all info from the official platform is unreasonable.

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3 comments · 2 top-level

mikegerwitz7y ago· 1 in thread

For more information, see the GNU Coding Standards:

https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#References

In particular:

> A GNU program should not recommend, promote, or grant legitimacy to the use of any non-free program. Proprietary software is a social and ethical problem, and our aim is to put an end to that problem. We can’t stop some people from writing proprietary programs, or stop other people from using them, but we can and should refuse to advertise them to new potential customers, or to give the public the idea that their existence is ethical.

Excluding material isn't censorship---GNU stands by its principles. You wouldn't expect a vegan organization to advertise means of obtaining meat, for example.

rekado7y ago

I'd like to add that using proprietary software is not an act that deserves condemnation, it's not a moral failing or something like that. The GNU project opposes proprietary software as it is considered a social and ethical problem. Although I advise against it, you are free to use proprietary software for whatever reason (including possibly ethical or financial reasons) --- there are no mechanisms in place to prevent you from doing that in Guix (and the fact that Linux libre cannot load certain user-supplied firmware is a bug).

As a project, however, we do not recommend the use of proprietary software and don't provide a platform for advice on how to replace free parts of Guix with non-free software.

The use of proprietary software becomes an ethical problem when network effects are in place. Otherwise, it is the mechanisms of proprietary software itself that we object to, for example the barriers it poses to helping friends or neighbours and the way it gives developers control over the users.

enriquto7y ago

> (...) deleting all info from the official platform is unreasonable.

There's many linux distributions and packaging systems where you can easily download proprietary drivers. It's nice that there exists at least one with a firm commitment to free software.

Notice that you can still install proprietary software on top of Guix; they just prefer not to promote it via the official communication channels. That's perfectly reasonable.

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