[Mageia-discuss] Nice review!

Gary Montalbine gmontalbine at cox.net
Sat Jun 11 14:41:48 CEST 2011



On 06/11/2011 06:44 AM, Thomas Backlund wrote:

>>>> The only big problem they mention is the lack of decent video
>>>> drivers for both Ati and Nvidia in the DVD. Will Mageia ever have
>>>> those in the DVD or will it keep the "free" kind of version that
>>>> Mandriva has?
>>>>
>>>> If it was for me, I would include them but I don't know about the
>>>> original reasons of why they are not.
>>
>> In my mind, misplaced ideology. The arguments were that non-free
>> drivers should not be on a
>> nominally "free" dvd. I say nominally because even the kernel contains
>> technically non-free code.
>>

>
>> Let's make the focus "working out of the box".
>> If that means including non-free drivers where a reliable free driver
>> does not exist, so be it.
>> After all, these proprietary drivers are to make the user's
>> proprietary hardware work properly.
>> And if a reliable free driver exists, of course we wouldn't include
>> the proprietary driver.
>>
>
> You know we are promoting open source, not closed stuff...
>
> And you dont see users on MS side complain when they have to download
> drivers from vendor site (or install it separately from a vendor
> provided cd/dvd)
>
> What we missed in Ati case is a fallback to non-KMS mode when firmware
> is missing. So the ati driver do work without nonfree stuff too.
>
> And people should also learn to check if hw is properly supported by
> open source before buying.
>
> We also need to educate endusers that not all hw vendors are
> "os-friendly" so lets support those that are...

If Mageia is to grow it needs to attract the normal user. The one's 
switching from MS. Many will not know what their video card is or may 
not even have the technical knowledge to figure out their hardware. They 
just want it to work. In ML I was asked if I wanted to load a propriety 
driver. I don't recall that happening here. I had to go find it. On 
bootup there was a lot of garbage about radeon and open spaces. I am 
using the radeon HD 4200 card. I have been an ML user since 2002 and 
have been able to work around problems with forum/mail list support. I 
have installed it for first time users with no problem. They were happy.

Again, to succeed Mageia must include what is necessary for the average 
non-technical user. I want to congratulate all those who have worked so 
hard on getting the first version out.

>
> Or teach people about _real_ open source...

That's not going to happen for the average non-technical user. In 2002 I 
had heard about Linux and wanted to try something different. I had no 
knowledge of system requirements. At that time mandrake was sold in the 
local electronic store. It worked. And I have support from a local users 
group.

Gary


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