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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #88803 > unrolled thread
| Started by | Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> |
|---|---|
| First post | 2026-07-09 13:43 +0800 |
| Last post | 2026-07-18 20:53 +0000 |
| Articles | 20 on this page of 21 — 10 participants |
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OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> - 2026-07-09 13:43 +0800
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-07-09 05:52 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Jasen Betts <usenet@revmaps.duckdns.org> - 2026-07-16 05:10 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-07-16 05:36 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-07-16 02:30 -0400
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> - 2026-07-17 19:51 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-17 23:02 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-07-17 21:40 -0400
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-18 05:39 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-18 14:54 +0100
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-18 20:28 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-07-18 22:30 -0400
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> - 2026-07-18 19:33 +1000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-18 12:45 +0100
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-07-18 22:38 -0400
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-18 14:55 +0100
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-18 20:46 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-18 22:43 +0100
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-19 01:14 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-07-18 16:40 +0000
Re: OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-07-18 20:53 +0000
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| From | Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-09 13:43 +0800 |
| Subject | OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage? |
| Message-ID | <112ncdq$5nuq$1@dont-email.me> |
Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. Has similar happened to other distros?
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| From | Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-09 05:52 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <112ncut$5p1t$2@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88803 |
On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:43:19 +0800, Woozy Song wrote: > Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy and deleted a heap of > stuff from Github. I can’t imagine that being any more than a minor nuisance, easily fixed after suitable disciplinary measures have been taken.
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| From | Jasen Betts <usenet@revmaps.duckdns.org> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-16 05:10 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <1139p3l$eb9r$5@gonzo.revmaps.no-ip.org> |
| In reply to | #88804 |
On 2026-07-09, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote: > On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:43:19 +0800, Woozy Song wrote: > >> Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy and deleted a heap of >> stuff from Github. > > I can’t imagine that being any more than a minor nuisance, easily > fixed after suitable disciplinary measures have been taken. git repos are easily restored, but the github value-adds don't get mirrrored to the clients. eg: the bugtrackers and other stuff github provides -- Jasen. 🇺🇦 Слава Україні
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| From | Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-16 05:36 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <1139qla$1nnjb$1@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88864 |
On Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:10:13 -0000 (UTC), Jasen Betts wrote: > On 2026-07-09, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote: >> >> On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:43:19 +0800, Woozy Song wrote: >> >>> Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy and deleted a heap of >>> stuff from Github. >> >> I can’t imagine that being any more than a minor nuisance, easily >> fixed after suitable disciplinary measures have been taken. > > git repos are easily restored, but the github value-adds don't get > mirrrored to the clients. eg: the bugtrackers and other stuff github > provides Gee, that’s too bad. Still, I’m sure they had their own backups of everything important, right?
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| From | c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-16 02:30 -0400 |
| Message-ID | <pu6dnS8n-6bx58X3nZ2dnZfqn_SdnZ2d@giganews.com> |
| In reply to | #88865 |
On 7/16/26 01:36, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote: > On Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:10:13 -0000 (UTC), Jasen Betts wrote: > >> On 2026-07-09, Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote: >>> >>> On Thu, 9 Jul 2026 13:43:19 +0800, Woozy Song wrote: >>> >>>> Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy and deleted a heap of >>>> stuff from Github. >>> >>> I can’t imagine that being any more than a minor nuisance, easily >>> fixed after suitable disciplinary measures have been taken. >> >> git repos are easily restored, but the github value-adds don't get >> mirrrored to the clients. eg: the bugtrackers and other stuff github >> provides > > Gee, that’s too bad. > > Still, I’m sure they had their own backups of everything important, > right? Ummmmm ... not necessarily ...... I've had fatal probs with Arch derivs ... after a year they won't update properly. Eventually had to dump 'em all and use Deb derivs instead. No more Manjaro boxes. Despite some more-recent irritations, I'll still rec vanilla Deb over all other current distros. MX seems to be The Best deriv right now, and has been for a LONG time.
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| From | John McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-17 19:51 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <113e147$31u9i$1@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88803 |
Followups changed to comp.os.linux.misc
In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote:
> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took
> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the
> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not
> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy
> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github.
> Has similar happened to other distros?
That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other
distros.
But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago
the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that
broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused
many people to migrate to another distro.
--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars
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| From | rbowman <bowman@montana.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-17 23:02 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <nbvqktFr9huU1@mid.individual.net> |
| In reply to | #88879 |
On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:51:35 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote: > But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago the distro > it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that broke some hardware. I > forgot the exact problem but it caused many people to migrate to another > distro. I had Mandrake on one box and don't recall having any problems with it. It was a long time ago but iirc it was a shrink wrapped box featuring a penguin with a magic wand. That killed any defense when Hearst sued. Compared to installing Slackware from a couple of boxes of floppies it was polished.
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| From | c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-17 21:40 -0400 |
| Message-ID | <ELOdnQY-08wRRMf3nZ2dnZfqn_SdnZ2d@giganews.com> |
| In reply to | #88880 |
On 7/17/26 19:02, rbowman wrote: > On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 19:51:35 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote: > >> But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago the distro >> it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that broke some hardware. I >> forgot the exact problem but it caused many people to migrate to another >> distro. > > I had Mandrake on one box and don't recall having any problems with it. It > was a long time ago but iirc it was a shrink wrapped box featuring a > penguin with a magic wand. That killed any defense when Hearst sued. > > Compared to installing Slackware from a couple of boxes of floppies it was > polished. The hardware-compatibility issue has greatly expanded since the Old Days. SO many new devices with SO many functions/params, all needing carefully- tweaked drivers. Sometimes you can't even tell exactly what version of what driver is required. Faster and easier to just switch distros and hope for better. The modern distros do an exceptional job at figuring it all out. Alas, once in a awhile ... And yea, I remember all those Slack floppies :-)
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| From | rbowman <bowman@montana.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 05:39 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <nc0hslFr9i4U1@mid.individual.net> |
| In reply to | #88881 |
On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 21:40:28 -0400, c186282 wrote: > The hardware-compatibility issue has greatly expanded since the Old > Days. SO many new devices with SO many functions/params, all needing > carefully- tweaked drivers. Sometimes you can't even tell exactly > what version of what driver is required. Faster and easier to just > switch distros and hope for better. Reading the various forums and reddits Nvidia appears to be the major pain in the ass although some people have problems with touchpads. Everything I have is plain vanilla with either Intel or AMD integrated graphics. Getting the fingerprint reader working on the Lenovo took a little work and after I got it working I found it more trouble than it was worth. I probably could have screwed around with the pam stuff. The older Broadcom wifi on a 2011 netbook has been the only driver issue, but then that's Broadcom.
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| From | The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 14:54 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <113g0hv$3jspa$1@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88882 |
On 18/07/2026 06:39, rbowman wrote: > On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 21:40:28 -0400, c186282 wrote: > >> The hardware-compatibility issue has greatly expanded since the Old >> Days. SO many new devices with SO many functions/params, all needing >> carefully- tweaked drivers. Sometimes you can't even tell exactly >> what version of what driver is required. Faster and easier to just >> switch distros and hope for better. > > Reading the various forums and reddits Nvidia appears to be the major pain > in the ass although some people have problems with touchpads. Everything I > have is plain vanilla with either Intel or AMD integrated graphics. > Getting the fingerprint reader working on the Lenovo took a little work > and after I got it working I found it more trouble than it was worth. I > probably could have screwed around with the pam stuff. > > The older Broadcom wifi on a 2011 netbook has been the only driver issue, > but then that's Broadcom. I concur Nvidia graphics, Broadcom wifi and occasionally touchpads have been the things that have given trouble, That and scanners Fortunately Nvidia' s closed source drivers generally worked, Broadcom wifi seems now to work out 'of the box'. -- “People believe certain stories because everyone important tells them, and people tell those stories because everyone important believes them. Indeed, when a conventional wisdom is at its fullest strength, one’s agreement with that conventional wisdom becomes almost a litmus test of one’s suitability to be taken seriously.” Paul Krugman
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| From | rbowman <bowman@montana.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 20:28 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <nc2604Fr9huU5@mid.individual.net> |
| In reply to | #88885 |
On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 14:54:06 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote: > Fortunately Nvidia' s closed source drivers generally worked, Broadcom > wifi seems now to work out 'of the box'. The netbook is old. For an install I use a USB wifi dongle. The last distro i installed was Mint and once it was running the DriverManager pulled down the driver and life was good. Then the kernel updateed to 7. Or I should say it tried but dkms failed when it tried to build the init and it reverted to the previous kernel. The driver manager didn't show an update but I was able to get a new driver. Oddly the people with older Macs had the same issue and I think that's where I found the source for the new one. Probably any computer from this decade is okay.
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| From | c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 22:30 -0400 |
| Message-ID | <2dadnQk_-LlBq8H3nZ2dnZfqn_udnZ2d@giganews.com> |
| In reply to | #88882 |
On 7/18/26 01:39, rbowman wrote: > On Fri, 17 Jul 2026 21:40:28 -0400, c186282 wrote: > >> The hardware-compatibility issue has greatly expanded since the Old >> Days. SO many new devices with SO many functions/params, all needing >> carefully- tweaked drivers. Sometimes you can't even tell exactly >> what version of what driver is required. Faster and easier to just >> switch distros and hope for better. > > Reading the various forums and reddits Nvidia appears to be the major pain > in the ass although some people have problems with touchpads. Even Linus spit fire at NVidia ... Keyboards/touch ... I've had my share of issues there. Awkward work-arounds, but rarely a neat fix. > Everything I > have is plain vanilla with either Intel or AMD integrated graphics. > Getting the fingerprint reader working on the Lenovo took a little work > and after I got it working I found it more trouble than it was worth. I > probably could have screwed around with the pam stuff. > > The older Broadcom wifi on a 2011 netbook has been the only driver issue, > but then that's Broadcom. Haven't had any special issues with old BroadCom. Doesn't mean others haven't. Even now, a TP-Link USB external wifi antenna is acting up a bit ... drops the connection for a second or two maybe every half hour. Some have suggestions ... but I'm not even sure WHAT is the exact correct driver/version for the thing or how to force it in there. Gotta modprobe, but modprobe WHAT exactly ? Opinions vary. Too much complexity now. (the onboard wifi chip DID die - no getting it back) DID mention how that unit, MX/Beelink, would die after a month or two - and it was all because I did not disable 'motion' making copies of videos to the system drive. Fixed now. The mystery prob was ZERO REMAINING DISK SPACE despite what the boot-up messages/logs suggested.
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| From | Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 19:33 +1000 |
| Message-ID | <113fh8t$3fccc$1@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88879 |
On 18/07/2026 5:51 am, John McCue wrote: > Followups changed to comp.os.linux.misc > In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote: >> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took >> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the >> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not >> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy >> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. >> Has similar happened to other distros? > > That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other > distros. > > But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago > the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that > broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused > many people to migrate to another distro. > Sorry!! How can ANY Distro of anything break Hardware?? Old Age can, sure, but .....!! -- Daniel70
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| From | Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 12:45 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <wwv7bmsbjxe.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk> |
| In reply to | #88883 |
Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> writes: > On 18/07/2026 5:51 am, John McCue wrote: >> In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote: >>> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took >>> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the >>> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not >>> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy >>> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. >>> Has similar happened to other distros? >> That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other >> distros. >> But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago >> the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that >> broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused >> many people to migrate to another distro. > > Sorry!! How can ANY Distro of anything break Hardware?? Old Age can, > sure, but .....!! I don’t know the specific issue John mentions. Usually it would involve a hardware issue, for example https://lwn.net/Articles/674940/ - a hardware bug for sure but easy to trigger from software. Looking more widely than typical PCs, some SoCs have one-time or few-time programmable boot configuration; reprogramming that to an invalid configuration would brick the device. -- https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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| From | c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 22:38 -0400 |
| Message-ID | <2DKdnRWonvImpcH3nZ2dnZfqnPadnZ2d@giganews.com> |
| In reply to | #88884 |
On 7/18/26 07:45, Richard Kettlewell wrote: > Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> writes: >> On 18/07/2026 5:51 am, John McCue wrote: >>> In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote: >>>> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took >>>> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the >>>> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not >>>> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy >>>> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. >>>> Has similar happened to other distros? >>> That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other >>> distros. >>> But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago >>> the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that >>> broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused >>> many people to migrate to another distro. >> >> Sorry!! How can ANY Distro of anything break Hardware?? Old Age can, >> sure, but .....!! > > I don’t know the specific issue John mentions. Usually it would involve > a hardware issue, for example https://lwn.net/Articles/674940/ - a > hardware bug for sure but easy to trigger from software. > > Looking more widely than typical PCs, some SoCs have one-time or > few-time programmable boot configuration; reprogramming that to an > invalid configuration would brick the device. So fix it by breaking it ? :-) As for Arch derivs ... I've had varying success with them. Was last using Manjaro, but after a year it suddenly wouldn't update anymore - was screaming about invalid security signatures and such. No work-arounds. Had to dump it. Do NOT like the "dual repo" thing either. IMHO, yer still best off with Deb and derivs. If you want to 'experiment' with others, fine, but for solid 'service' boxes ......
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| From | The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 14:55 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <113g0l2$3jspa$2@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88883 |
On 18/07/2026 10:33, Daniel70 wrote: > On 18/07/2026 5:51 am, John McCue wrote: >> Followups changed to comp.os.linux.misc >> In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote: >>> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took >>> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the >>> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not >>> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy >>> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. >>> Has similar happened to other distros? >> >> That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other >> distros. >> >> But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago >> the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that >> broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused >> many people to migrate to another distro. >> > Sorry!! How can ANY Distro of anything break Hardware?? Old Age can, > sure, but .....!! Well back in the day Debian would not include 'non-free' drivers in its distro. Linux Mint did. -- I would rather have questions that cannot be answered... ...than to have answers that cannot be questioned Richard Feynman
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| From | rbowman <bowman@montana.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 20:46 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <nc270fFbb5kU1@mid.individual.net> |
| In reply to | #88886 |
On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 14:55:46 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote: > Well back in the day Debian would not include 'non-free' drivers in its > distro. > Linux Mint did. I thought the non-free repo was why the FSF stopped supporting Debian. https://itsfoss.com/news/fsf-does-not-consider-debian-a-free-distribution/ Debian is in good company. The list of FSF approved distributions is short and obscure. https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Ideological purity comes with a price.
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| From | Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 22:43 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <wwvy0f8as8l.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk> |
| In reply to | #88890 |
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes: > The Natural Philosopher wrote: > >> Well back in the day Debian would not include 'non-free' drivers in its >> distro. >> Linux Mint did. > > I thought the non-free repo was why the FSF stopped supporting Debian. > > https://itsfoss.com/news/fsf-does-not-consider-debian-a-free-distribution/ > > Debian is in good company. The list of FSF approved distributions is short > and obscure. > > https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html > > Ideological purity comes with a price. https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.en.html explains their reasoning. non-free is part of the issue but worse (from the FSF’s point of view) is that non-free firmware device firmwares are installed automatically. (Note, not the same thing as device drivers.) Personally I consider the FSF position quixotic at best. Non-free firmware only runs if you have the relevant device. If you don’t have the device then it just sits harmlessly on disk - a minor waste of space, but not any kind of real-life infringement of end user freedoms of the kind the FSF cares about. If, on the other hand, you do have a relevant device, the FSF position would mean not being able to use it. If you share the FSF’s views precisely then you might consider that an acceptable outcome, of course: but why would you have knowingly bought such a device in the first place? -- https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
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| From | rbowman <bowman@montana.com> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-19 01:14 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <nc2mmsFbb5kU3@mid.individual.net> |
| In reply to | #88892 |
On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 22:43:38 +0100, Richard Kettlewell wrote: > Personally I consider the FSF position quixotic at best. Non-free > firmware only runs if you have the relevant device. If you don’t have > the device then it just sits harmlessly on disk - a minor waste of > space, but not any kind of real-life infringement of end user freedoms > of the kind the FSF cares about. Quixote is Stallman's middle name. Eric Raymond had it right. Raymond is nothing if not divisive but if the FSF had its way our choices would be very limited.
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| From | Rich <rich@example.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-07-18 16:40 +0000 |
| Message-ID | <113gaa2$3ml04$2@dont-email.me> |
| In reply to | #88883 |
Daniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote: > On 18/07/2026 5:51 am, John McCue wrote: >> Followups changed to comp.os.linux.misc >> In comp.os.linux.misc Woozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com> wrote: >>> Just got an e-mail from OpenMandriva explaining what occurred. They took >>> on a new developer, who became abusive to others in the team. So the >>> person at the top blocked them from the chat, but unfortunately did not >>> cut off the dev priveleges. Anyway the problematic person spat the dummy >>> and deleted a heap of stuff from Github. >>> Has similar happened to other distros? >> >> That is too bad, I have not heard of that happening to other >> distros. >> >> But Mandriva seems to have a "curse" on it. IIRC, ages ago >> the distro it descended from, Mandrake, had an issue that >> broke some hardware. I forgot the exact problem but it caused >> many people to migrate to another distro. >> > Sorry!! How can ANY Distro of anything break Hardware?? Old Age can, > sure, but .....!! Back in yesteryear, and primarially before the advent of multi-sync monitors (this is for old CRT tube monitors) if one fed the wrong frequency video signals into a CRT monitor that was designed for a different set of frequencies, some of those monitors could be damaged as a result. I.e., the monitor was fixed frequency and designed for 800x600 signals. Feeding it a 1024x768 or 1280x1024 signal (for some monitors) could damage the monitor. Now, one could, quite reasonably, argue that this was a poor design on the part of those monitors that could be damaged this way, but it was something that could happen. Other possibilities that also come to mind: 1) repeatedly hammering a floppy disk head against either the innermost or outermost head travel stop to attempt to break either the stepper motor or the metal bands connecting the stepper to the head assembly; 2) repeating the same for a hard disk; 3) repeatedly parking and unparking the heads of a hard disk rapidly (most hard drives had plastic ramps for the park position, too many park cycles could wear down the plastic -- granted "too many" was likely on the order of millions, so one had to intentionally try) There are likely more possible senarios. But the point is, it is possible for software to, sometimes, break hardware. The video sync one was the one more folks were likely to see from installing a "distro" in that if the default install brought X up with the wrong sync signals the CRT tube could be damaged. This is why old X modeline FAQ's always cautioned one to carefully review one's choices against the spec. sheets for one's monitor lest one accidentally setup an incorrect modeline and damage one's monitor in the process. Much of this was also before the advent of EDID signaling where the monitor could tell the computer what combinations of signals it could understand and then the OS could set up the video card to output one of the sets the monitor claimed it could handle.
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