Re: Plans for ahead

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

Svetlana A. Tkachenko wrote:
> In my view we should not do anything regarding Raspbian, because it
> includes non-free components. To quote
> https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/single-board-computers  :

I think this vision is too extreme. I beg to differ in my personal 
opinions here.
It is important to me that GNUstep remains free (in fact it is GPL/LGPL 
and that is not going to change I suppose) and that it can be built 
totally with Free tools on a Free operating system.

If, then, GNUstep is capable of running on proprietary operating 
systems, that is an added benefit, that is more freedom. I am not taking 
anything away, I am adding to it. Nobody is requiring you to use a 
proprietary device with GNUstep. You just may.

To me, it makes sense to have a Free application running on a 
proprietary OS. This expands my horizon. I can, for example, use the 
same tool on my own Laptop running a free Unix, on a Mac or even at work 
on Windows. My freedom is expanded.

While it is true that e.g. OpenBSD doesn't like the need of binary parts 
on the PI to run, it is a on open platform, more open than e.g. most 
Laptops and Workstations!
If you have any Laptop or Workstation with a nVidia card (which might 
not be your choice) you need to run a proprietary driver nowadays! And 
ATI doesn't look that better.

Taking your reasoing to the extreme, if you apply it not to just 
single-board-computers, but to any computing device, there is almost 
nothing that runs really open. WiFi, video cards...

I think the Raspberry is a very nice device which has momentum and is 
bringing back fun into computing and has a lot of projects spurred by 
it, many open source projects. It is surely benefical and GNUstep should 
not miss this train, in fact, it should contribute to it.

*I am proud of running GNUstep on my Raspbian*.

Riccardo