Linux…To Free or not to Free?

I will admit that I like to read about linux, that operating system that everyone loves to hate (or, more recently, loves to love), but I don’t consider myself much of a fanatic for the cause. Yes, I do use Linux Mint frequently now (at least, whenever Windows Vista kicks me out of the house for my affair with the lovely Daryna), and I have also dabbled with Ubuntu, Mandriva (even when it was called Mandrake), and have even (painstakingly) installed and learned Gentoo for that authentic linux feel.

Having been on both sides of the debate between ease of use and that authentic learning experience, I can proudly say I prefer Linux Mint, a distro that’s closer to “just working” over something like Gentoo, which promises to please me with the fruits of my labor (the real linux spirit, so to speak) but actually just frustrates me even more.

But this article isn’t really about that (although I could write pages about my nerd frustration on that issue). On my iGoogle page today, I saw an enticing article title…someone felt sad to say that GNU/Linux users “don’t care about freedom.” The article title was, in my mind, excellent advertising, so I commend the author for it. My knee involuntary jerked at the idea of “not caring about freedom,” or at least, my clicking hand. Great success for a blogger, I know.

The article returns us to a familiar battlefield between open-source and free file formats and the establishment of proprietary formats we brought with us from Windows. The author yields that supporting proprietary formats is not necessarily bad, but we should also support the free alternatives.

I think this argument slips past the REAL concern. It doesn’t matter whether software is free or proprietary AT ALL. What does matter is what software works and is responsive to the needs of consumers. If this happens to be a piece of proprietary software, then we must support and prefer that. If free software best fits our needs, then we should support it.

This allows us to justify free software without blindly believing in its cause. For example, proprietary software might work correctly, but its developers may completely ignore users about suggestions and improvements. In this case, FOSS provides users with a way to put in their own input and have their voices heard, and the FOSS will eventually become superior to the stagnant proprietary format. And of course, obviously, if proprietary software just doesn’t work well, then open source alternatives should be developed.

This is not an ideological war. It’s practicality, pure and simple. I will support mp3 players because that’s what works for me in most cases right now. I have no practical reason to switch to ogg. That is just ideology. I support Linux Mint because it keeps practicality in mind. It doesn’t try to use as little (or no) proprietary software as possible, and it doesn’t try to maintain this idea that people must work for their operating systems.

My ideological opponents (hah, what irony that my opinion itself is an ideology) will say that this is leading to the degradation of the linux community and what it stands for, but I will counter by saying that linux will NEVER leave its niche unless it drops its niche mentality.

UPDATE:

Oh goodie…it seems that Linus Torvalds has decided that ndiswrapper should not be supported by the GNU General Public license…What does this mean though?

Ndiswrapper is a program that loads Windows (*hiss*) modules for wireless adaptors and wireless NICs in linux. Why? Because linux support for many brands of NICs (namely anything made by Broadcom) is severely lacking. It’s extremely counterintuitive to get NICs from Broadcom or certain other companies working via current methods unless you already have access to the internet–which is all fine and dandy until you’re considering that the piece of hardware that doesn’t work IS what connects you to the internet.

Torvalds decision is to essentially break the programming of the current version of ndiswrapper by disallowing it access to specific code symbols that are part of the GPL, by saying that by accessing Windows files, it can’t be an open-source based development.

This is the ideological war all over again…Linux is severely disabled on the wireless front, and instead of promoting tried and tested solutions, the ideology war to be “free” but mediocre wins out.