[Mageia-dev] [RFC] radeon firmware in non-free

[Agron Selimaj]

Hi,

I can see two objectives here.
First objective is to have a high installation success rate.
And second objective is to have happy users from both camps; the
GNU-purists-camp and the don't-care-camp.

I think the GNU-purists-camp is a minority here, but I could be wrong, I
never counted them. For them I would make a pure installation DVDs of all
editions, like Desktop, Server, Live, etc. I bet all purists are
expert Linux users and they know enough about their hardware and if there
are GNU drivers for it.

On the other hand, the don't-care-camp needs stuff that works. They don't
care where it comes from, and they never read the messages. They just click
through. For them I would make a mixed DVD with pre-selected components
that have higher success rate. For example, if we know that non-free radeon
drivers install better than the free ones, don't ask the user at all just
go ahead and install the non-free version.

This way, we are making the users choose early way before they start
installing.

I would also call those editions like this:

  1g)  Mageia 3 Server (G) Installation DVD i686 - Includes GNU drivers

  1v)  Mageia 3 Server (V) Installation DVD i686 - Includes Vendor drivers

We would also say "If you don't know which to choose, go for Vendor
editions"

I think providing free and non-free installation media will increase
Mageia's quality and reputation. But, everything must be in a single DVD
because there are laptops, servers, and desktops with Broadcom PHY's and
they can't get supplemental DVD's or packages without a working network
card or wifi.

Putting them all together in a single non-free DVD will increase the
installation success rate for sure.

And at last let me introduce my self.
My name is Agron Selimaj. I am an experienced Linux user and programmer. I
have 11 years of Linux experience and I am a Mandriva Powerpack user since
2006 or 2007. I am a professional C++ programmer for Windows, Linux
embedded and Linux Desktops at my day job.
I like the spirit of Mageia creators and I would like to join you. At the
moment, I am an apprentice candidate waiting for a mentor to guide me
through package creation process, bug fixing, etc.

//Agron



On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Angelo Naselli <anaselli at linux.it> wrote:

> mercoledì 30 maggio 2012 alle 16:38, Johnny A. Solbu ha scritto:
> > On Wednesday 30 May 2012 16:20, Angelo Naselli wrote:
> > > If you really mean that you should also remove non-free repositories
> etc...
> > > I don't think being a don Quijote is that good... always imho of
> course.
> >
> > They do exactly that. They do not have any non-free repo. They have a
> policy that do not allow any non-free software (programs, drivers, firmware
> etc.) in their distributions, and they don't have any exceptions.
> > Some might find this silly and stupid. But they live by the rule that
> every software should be Free. If it is not, they will not use it because
> they can't do what they want with it.
> >
> > My point is just that there really do exist several distributions that
> do not allow any non-free software in their repositories. if they don't
> have any non-free software there is no point in having an empty non-free
> repo. The way Thierry listed the two categories he seemed to suggest that
> there where no such distributions.
>
> That's sounds different of course, i thought you referred to us ;)
>
>
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