Re: [H-source-users] changes to the h-node.org website

[hellekin]

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On 06/08/2013 02:53 PM, Luis Guzman wrote:
> El jue, 06-06-2013 a las 21:50 +0200, Michał Masłowski escribió:
>>> 3. The items that ship with proprietary software pre-installed
>>> (laptops and routers, not sure if there are other categories)
>>> should say something along the lines of
>>> 
>>> =============================================================================
>>>
>>> 
This device ships with proprietary software pre-installed. It can be
upgraded
>>> to free software, which is why it is listed on h-node.org. 
>>> =============================================================================
>>
>>
>>> 
This isn't necessarily true: not on all laptops users reporting them
>> have successfully installed a free operating system,
>> implementations of restricted boot might prevent it (e.g. in
>> future when there will be ARM systems supported by free distros).
>> The "can free operating systems be installed?" field was added
>> for this, so users know what laptops to avoid.  Should the second
>> sentence be shown only if this field is set to "yes"?
> 
> As Michał mention before, there is the "can free operating systems
> be installed?" field, besides, most of the manufactures changes
> the software on different regions, so there is no standard for
> that.
> 
> Once, in a Peruvian supermarket, i found a model of notebooks that
> we're sold with a customized GNU/Linux distro, it was a non-free
> one, at that point is easy to change it for any distro free or non
> free, maybe we could change the first statement with; "Can the
> pre-installed proprietary OS be replaced with a free one?" - Yes -
> No - Comes with a free OS
> 
*** There's also the case of hardware sold without an OS
pre-installed. So that should read:

"Can the pre-installed proprietary OS, if any, be replaced with a free
one?"

- - Yes
- - No
- - Comes without a proprietary OS
- - Comes with a free OS

But that does not take into account the variety of models: some
laptops come with Windows pre-installed, but the manufacturer offers
an alternate Ubuntu version. As far as the FSF is concerned, that does
not make much of a difference, but for h-node users it can make a
great deal of a difference: if a company sells with a GNU/Linux OS
pre-installed, even one with binary blobs, that's already a good
indication that the hardware will probably be able to run a free OS.
The rationale here is that there's a lot of laptops that come with
freedom-compatible hardware-but-the-wifi-chip (aka a Bronze device in
h-node).

Using a good computer without a wifi chip is doable, whereas using a
low-end computer with free wifi might come as a secondary choice.
I.e., it can be cheaper to use a ThinkPad with a free USB Wifi device,
or change the builtin wifi chip of a laptop rather than boycott the
whole thing because of a single device that is not mandatory.
Moreover, registering an interest from consumers for a certain model
might help build pressure over manufacturers to provide alternate
models, shipping with free Wifi devices, or help get someone to write
the missing free drivers.

Cheers,

==
hk
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