Re: Plans for GUADEC 2007, yes 2007

["Richard M. Stallman" <rms gnu org>]

    However the reason you are saying that Ubuntu is
    shipping non-free software is not known to me (well, the only place,
    where I see non-free software might be, is device drivers, but that is a
    fault of hardware vendors. And it is reasonable to use them, isn't it?

I don't remember which programs in Ubuntu are non-free; perhaps they
are device drivers.  Someone else recently said that's what they are,
so that seems likely.

The reason why distributing non-free device drivers is harmful is that
distributing any non-free program says, in effect, "Non-free programs
aren't so bad."  After all, if you thought it was really bad to
install a non-free program, you wouldn't suggest it to others.

And if using a non-free device driver is acceptable because we call it
the hardware companies' fault, then what about using Sun's Java
libraries and saying that's Sun's fault, or using Adobe's e-book
reader with DRM and saying that's Adobe's fault, or RealPlayer's
spyware-player and saying that's RealPlayer's fault, etc?

Of course we want GNU/Linux to be successful, but why is that goal
important?  Because our system is a way to escape from non-free
software.

Anyway, I don't want to turn this into a long digression
from the topic of planning GUADEC 2007.