The problem with a binary blob is that it may work at a point in time, then the environment moves forward and the blob doesn't work anymore.
Nvidia didn't pull a "fixed in fremantle" yet , but one never knows....
given a choice between working now and for as long as maintained vs not at all I know which I would choose.
given a choice between working now and for as long as maintained vs not at all I know which I would choose.
Oh, sure, but given a choice between a piece of hardware working with a binary blob and one working with a GPL driver, preferably in the mainline kernel/X, I also know which I would choose.
Oh, sure, but given a choice between a piece of hardware working with a binary blob and one working with a GPL driver, preferably in the mainline kernel/X, I also know which I would choose.
as a lazy sysadmin, there is one thing i prefer more than GPL drivers:
Oh, sure, but given a choice between a piece of hardware working with a binary blob and one working with a GPL driver, preferably in the mainline kernel/X, I also know which I would choose.
I don't think anyone is arguing against this. The problem is everything else isn't even close to being equal. I would jump ship yesterday, but even companies like Via and the guys that create the OMAP3 graphics chips aren't sharing. I never need the latest and greatest, so when there are FOSS AMD (or whoever) drivers coupled with hardware that meet my minimum requirements (robust, fast, ..., etc.), I'll be there. But in the meantime...
Yep, guess I'm not alone in sharing that sentiment...
I switched it off (and set up interfaces, wpasupplicant.conf etc manually), but Firefox believed my connection was non-existent and set itself to "Work Offline" by default, on each startup. It was a pain in the *** turning it off. (I think there's workarounds/fixes now, but they didn't exist when I was using Linux.)
Or maybe it's Ubuntu turning more and more into a shitpile. I had to upgrade from an older Ubuntu install that had an old NetworkManager and pin networkmanager in /etc/apt/preferences. Too much of a hassle if I needed to reinstall. Plus, I couldn't mount jffs2 files like I could with previous versions (I had to boot from a 7.04 live CD and tar it up from there...)
Whilst I cringe at the thought of using network manager on a server, using it on a desktop my experiences are ok. As far as using a laptop (wifi on the move etc) it works really well - well enough for my better half to connect to a wifi spot without any problems, and start a openvpn client.
As far as pulseaudio goes, I don't know of any other software that allows you to specify different mixer levels for different applications so easily (and I agree it's far from perfect, just try using skype with pulseaudio for the microphone!)
I think with a lot of these new ideas, you have to bear with them and see what happens.
And just be thankful linux has a good networking stack, and you are not left in the world of windows networking!
Nothing beats the vi approach, but not all people share my sentiment of pain ;-)
, but one never knows....