Fedora's way forward

[Michael J Knox]

Hans de Goede wrote:

>
>
> Eric S. Raymond wrote:
>
>> Michael J Knox <michael at knox.net.nz>:
>>
>>> After looking at the link I gave closer, I noticed this:
>>>
>>> http://easylinux.info/wiki/Fedora_frog
>>>
>>> This is a script that installs and sets up a lot of the things 
>>> people are looking for.
>>>
>>> How about we work on/from/with that? Its certainly a start.
>>
>>
>> Agreed.
>
>
> No this is way wrong:
> -it drags in mscorefont which is atleast a legal gray area
> -it enables all repos under the sun causing repo conflict nightmare,
>  I've had to help many new Linux users fix their systems after following
>  great advise like this.
> -and does all kind of other evil
>
>
> Lets get back on track here, the problem ESR brought up was: Fedora 
> lacks good multimedia playback. The reaction was a mix of:
> -unfortunatly we can't provide that
> -we can't provide that and we don't want to unless we can in a 100% open
>  way
> -we can provide that out of the box, and legally we can't ever provide
>  it 100% open (livna is not legal in the states), but we could come some
>  way using gratis propietary stuff which can be downloaded
>
> My stance is:
> -yes better multimedia support would be good
> -yes Fedora must stay 100% opensource and redistributable etc
> -Fedore should not encourage use of propietary formats but it shouldn't
>  make it impossble either.
>
>
> My Conclusion:
>
> We should provide a mechanism where if a user tries to play an 
> unsupported format, we look up the format in an ondisk (no phoning 
> home please) tabel and see if there is a gratis and legal (even in the 
> states!) downloadable codec in the tabel, if there is such a beast, 
> then _help_ the user install it.
>
> Notting more and notting less, so we wont be telling them to use mp3, 
> nor will we be claiming support, but if a users tries it we help him, 
> now how can helping a user accomplish what he is trying todo ever be bad?
>
> Another take on this, I'm a big fan of free software because of the 
> freedom it gives me, thats what this is all about isn't it, freedom!
> Doesn't that include the freedom to use proprietary software when I 
> want to? It seems that there are people here who would like to even 
> forbid the use of proprietary software if they could and since then 
> can't they atleast want to make it as hard to use as possible, this is 
> BAD as it hurts other peoples freedom!
>
> Regards,
>
> Hans
>
I didn't say this was "it", I said it was a _start_ , its an _example_ 
of what someone is _already_ doing instead of endless bitching.

The point was for people with a common interest work together on 
something that provided a solution that will make people happy.

Plenty of Fedora/RedHat folks have clearly stated that they will not be 
adding _any_ mechanisms to Fedora Core to enable closed source apps to 
be installed.

So, step back, look at my suggestion and treat is as an _idea_ not a 
_literal_

Michael