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> is a big unexplained pile of garbage What is unexplained? If it respects your freedoms, then it's a viable replacement for an equivalent program, even if bu
by mikegerwitz 10y ago
> is a big unexplained pile of garbage
What is unexplained?
If it respects your freedoms, then it's a viable replacement for an equivalent program, even if buggy or lacking in certain regards. If it's completely unusable, then obviously that's not practical, but if you reject proprietary software, then the alternative is simple: nothing.
A good example that I'm experiencing right now is Replicant. It lacks many features---not to any fault of its own---that require proprietary drivers. The front-facing camera, wifi, bluetooth, GPS, NFC, certain video drivers, etc simply don't work. Consequently, it can't take video or run certain programs like FF/IceCat that require special drivers for rendering.
But I can do everything I need to do with the phone except for take videos of my children.
- yxhuvud 10y agoSo your problem is that some totally separate pieces of code are not open source. Yeah, well, that is not the fault of open source. Whoever wrote Replicant could just as well have written it in GPL and it would have made absolutely no difference unless some of the driver makers chose to distribute Replicant. Open source is friendlier for gradual adoption of openness, and that can make the process a lot simpler. It also allows users to have mixed stacks which adds a whole new set of people that can contribute code.
- mikegerwitz 10y ago> So your problem is that some totally separate pieces of code are not open source. Yeah, well, that is not the fault of open source. No, I don't have a problem. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is until someone develops a viable replacement. My understanding is that the Android version in Replicant 6 will solve many outstanding issues. In any case, it's the fault of the developers of those drivers.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]