On Fri, 2008-02-08 at 03:18 +0000, Da Rock wrote: > Yes I find this is an interesting point too. I had no idea about other repos and I've been playing for a while with this game. I only kinda knew about freshrpms so I was able to go hunting there plus help with google search helped too. I only found out about linva recently, and the headaches in the differences are an issue as well. I understand the Fedora philosophy and I agree with it, but some things are better kept simpler. > > I'm not an Ubuntu supporter as such (except their support has been most useful for nearly all open source problems), but the way in which they have handled the licensing issue I found most useful. Useful != ethical. The Fedora Project is based on Free software - and not like beer. Free software is the lifeblood of the Project. The second the Fedora Project starts compromising on Free vs. commercial, it will lose a ton of community support. > They only open up the free software, but you can switch on other repos which do contain "grey" software simply in the repo manager. And thereby totally piss on the ethos of Free Software and the Fedora Project. > I put this question out there for free comment, but couldn't something similar be arranged in Fedora? (thereby making it the most stable yet flexible system on the planet! ;p) Sure, let's flush the Fedora Project's ideals down the toilet cause it's easier to use proprietary, non free software. Oh, and while we're at it, let's open up Red Hat to lawsuits because some poor guy somewhere followed the Fedora Project instructions and downloaded a codec at work and got his company sued by the BSA. That'd be *great* for the Fedora Project. For both idealistic and pragmatic reasons, the Fedora Project does not include non-free software or give instructions on how to use software which is non-free or potentially illegal. See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/MP3 for more info, including a way to have a perfectly legal mp3 codec at zero cost under Fedora. It's the Right Thing To Do(TM), and I hope that the project never sacrifices its ethics to take the easy route. Cheers, Thomas
