[Mageia-discuss] Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250

[Thomas Backlund]

lör 2011-06-04 klockan 18:57 +0300 skrev Hoyt Duff:

> The goal should be to have a distro that 'just works'. Solving the
> problem by copying files from outside the repositories may point out a
> deficiency in Mageia repos, but not if the solution can be found
> within.
> 

Yes.

> And this brings up a point of having the tainted repos as "opt-in".
> This thinking comes from a philosophy of some kind of "pure" Linux
> which eschews non-free licensed software.However, some hardware can
> only be useful with non-free software and it's unrealistic to pretend
> that such hardware does not exist nor that those using such hardware
> will have the knowledge and skill to enable the tainted repo.
> 

Its not about pretending that the hw does not exist. It's about
educating people about trying to buy hw that is properly supported 
by free software when/if possible.

> I realize that the purists among us have decide to disable the tainted
> repos by default, but those same people are the ones most likely to
> have selected hardware that does not depend on non-free software and
> they are also skilled Linux users. The opt-in approach serves to
> advance their political agenda at the expense of having a distro that
> 'just works' for the average to non-technical user.
> 

It's not just about "purists".
It's also about the reality. There are people that live in countries
where software patents are a reality, and they want to have a "clean"
install by default.

So it should be opt-in by default, not opt-out.

> It may be more sense to enable the tainted repos by default and
> provide an opt-out screen during the installation: "Repositories
> offering access to software that have non-free licenses are enabled by
> default. To keep your Mageia system unencumbered by software with
> restrictive or non-free licenses, please un-check the box. Certain
> hardware may not function without such non-free software and if you
> are unsure, leave the box checked."
> 

Actually it was intended to be the other way around, even for nonfree
section. But no-one had time to adapt and properly test the installer
for those changes for Mageia 1, so we left nonfree enabled.

For Mageia 2 anything but core will be disabled by default.
And when the installer notices the need of something from nonfree, it
will ask to enable it.

> That gives users a choice, makes Mageia a 'just works' distro for the
> average user and reduces the number of requests for assistance that
> can be solved by using non-free software.
> 

--
Thomas