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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #88803 > unrolled thread

OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage?

Started byWoozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com>
First post2026-07-09 13:43 +0800
Last post2026-07-18 20:53 +0000
Articles 20 on this page of 21 — 10 participants

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Contents

  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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#88803 — OpenMandriva turmoil - sabotage?

FromWoozy Song <suzyw0ng@outlook.com>
Date2026-07-09 13:43 +0800
SubjectOpenMandriva 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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#88804

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2026-07-09 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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#88864

FromJasen Betts <usenet@revmaps.duckdns.org>
Date2026-07-16 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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#88865

FromLawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Date2026-07-16 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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#88868

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-07-16 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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#88879

FromJohn McCue <jmclnx@gmail.com.invalid>
Date2026-07-17 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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#88880

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-07-17 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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#88881

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-07-17 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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#88882

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88885

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88888

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88900

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88883

FromDaniel70 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88884

FromRichard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88901

Fromc186282 <c186282@nnada.net>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88886

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88890

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88892

FromRichard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Date2026-07-18 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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#88895

Fromrbowman <bowman@montana.com>
Date2026-07-19 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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#88887

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2026-07-18 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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