Previously, I wrote about proprietary drivers included by default in Ubuntu, which I sent to the Ubuntu Community Council. I received swift and decent responses, although things didn’t look very promising, from what I understood the decision to include proprietary video drivers would most likely stand. However, Mark Shuttleworth did invite me to continue to stay part of the debate. Thank you Mark, for that.
Tonight, however, I was *very* pleasantly pleased to read about a decision by the Ubuntu Technical Board to exclude proprietary drivers by default in Ubuntu. I agree 100% with their reasoning, and 100% with the way that it will be implemented. The reality is that in many cases, Ubuntu’s users will simply have to rely on proprietary drivers, and making it easily to install is crucial. Instead of shipping proprietary drivers by default, Ubuntu will in the future ship with a simple interface where a user can simply choose to enable composite effects, and if they need a proprietary driver, then they can install it with a few simple clicks.
I have renewed confidence in both the TB and CC, and I’d like to give a big thanks to Mark Shuttleworth, Matt Zimmerman, Matthew Garrett and Scott James Remnant, who have, as far as I’m concerned, really made the best choice for Ubuntu and the free software world. I think it’s absolutely fantastic that such complicated decisions can be handled with such foresight, rationality and style.
Keep it up!!
UPDATE: (14 FEB 2007): I unintentionally mislead some people when I said that proprietary drivers will not be included by default, I meant to say proprietary video drivers would be included by default. I believe that the proprietary wifi drivers is a necessary inclusion, since most users wouldn’t be able to install those drivers without having a working network connection. I hope that this clears it up!
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February 13th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Careful! My reading of the decision (and what I’ve heard from general irc chat) is that the main justification is based on compiz not being mature enough; that doesn’t mean that the specification won’t be implemented at a later date if that situation improves.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
That is great news! Thanks for your effort, it is good to see that the exchange between developers/decision makers and (core) community members still works.
February 14th, 2007 at 7:14 am
After reading the announcement it looks like this decision is only for 7.04
February 14th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Yes, this does apply to 7.04, what’s important though, is the reasons for reaching the decision, it will make it easier to convince th TB to keep excluding proprietary drivers by default in the future. Perhaps even more importantly, is the decisions made based on their reasoning. It will now be easier for anyone to install the proprietary drivers, if they need them. Since the earliest versions of Ubuntu, installing certain drivers have been a pain, making it easier than in Windows will certainly aid the adoption rate.
I just hope that the same people who make the push for the proprietary drivers give some attention to the free drivers as well, there are open source drivers for some widely used cards that are not packaged in Ubuntu yet, such as the VIA S3 Unichrome chipset, for example.
February 14th, 2007 at 9:56 am
[...] Jonathan, I’m afraid you’ve misread the announcement that proprietary video drivers will not be switched on by default in Feisty. This was the result of a long telephone call including the entire TB and CC. During the discussion, we re-affirmed the Ubuntu policy of including proprietary drivers were these are required to enable essential hardware functionality. [...]
February 14th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
[...] Jonathan, I’m afraid you’ve misread the announcement that proprietary video drivers will not be switched on by default in Feisty. This was the result of a long telephone call including the entire TB and CC. During the discussion, we re-affirmed the Ubuntu policy of including proprietary drivers were these are required to enable essential hardware functionality. [...]
February 14th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Ah,
this is not ‘quite’ right though is it.
A bit misleading too.
J