Re: [gNewSense-users] A user's view

[Sam Geeraerts]

Op Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:15:18 -0500
schreef Quiliro Ordóñez Baca <address@hidden>:

> A network card will not cost more than ten dollars. You won't spare
> ten dollars for freedom?

One could argue that money and software freedom are not the only
factors to take into account. How much time and effort does it cost to
get such a network card? How much time and effort does it cost to
return/replace it should it be broken? What's the cradle-to-grave
social impact of this network card? And the environmental impact? And
of the old one, considering it's disposed of before its expected
failure? Does the chip manufacturer/card producer/retailer of the new
card actually support software freedom or is it just a coincidence
that it works with free software? Is the other hardware that's already
in possession compatible or does that also need to be replaced? Etc.

gNewSense's focus is on software freedom, and that will not change.
That means it doesn't fully work with some hardware configurations. Is
that a reason to compromise and include non-free software for those
devices? We think not, because that sends out the message that it's ok
to not support software freedom. But we acknowledge that non-free
software exists and that some people choose to use it. That's why we
don't take away the user's choice to do so (which would be impossible
to do with free software anyway). We just don't encourage or support it
in any way.