Re: Plans for ahead

[Gregory Casamento]

Svetlana,

On Thu, Nov 26, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Svetlana A. Tkachenko
<svetlana@members.fsf.org> wrote:
>> 1.  Build an authentic NeXTStep feeling GNUStep OS.  However - we don't
>> want it to simulate things that were restrictive i.e authentic in ways
>> that
>> mean simulating things you "couldn't do" in NeXTStep/OpenStep.  Blend in
>> with Raspbian is a winning idea I think, happy to hear other suggestions
>> though.
>
> In my view we should not do anything regarding Raspbian, because it
> includes non-free components. To quote
> https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers :
>
>> The Raspberry Pi requires nonfree software to start up. It can't reach the 
>> point of executing free software unless this nonfree program is part of the 
>> installed system software.
>>
>> The startup program is, in fact, the same program that runs the GPU and the 
>> video decoding hardware. Thus, the GPU and the video decoding hardware are 
>> unusable in the free world, but these jobs can be done with free software on 
>> the CPU.
>>
>> That program appears to implement intentional restrictions, such as blocking 
>> the video decoding hardware for MPEG-2 and VC-1 in the absence of a key that 
>> is specific to the machine in hand. This nonfree startup program affects 
>> both models of the Raspberry Pi.
>
> Hope it helps.

I do understand your objections to this, but as you may be aware
GNUstep works on many completely non-free operating systems and
hardware.   Additionally there are versions of GNU/Linux which include
or use proprietary drivers in order to work with some hardware.
Being a purist is nice, but it is not practical.

It is up to us as a GNU project to allow people to use free software
on whatever platform they may be.   I see no reason to suddenly make
this even more restrictive and demand that free software run ONLY on
free hardware.

> --
> Svetlana A. Tkachenko
> Member of the Free Software Foundation
> www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org www.freenode.net

GC
-- 
Gregory Casamento
GNUstep Lead Developer / OLC, Principal Consultant
http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
http://ind.ie/phoenix/