a long rebuttal to the Linux-is-the-engine fallacy

[Antonio Olivares]

> > But my *kernel* is free.
> 
> Nope.  That's another lie they told you.  If it was
> Free, and it was
> intended to be Free, there wouldn't be any need for
> Linux-libre.
> 
> > What is wrong with the Fedora kernel?
> 
> It contains non-Free Software.
Is it not released under the GPL, which ensures that the software that is being released is free?  
> 
> > I can download it from kernel.org, and compile it and
> it is free.  
> 
> You can't compile all of it, or study the source code
> of all of it,
> because there's non-Free Software without source code
> in there, or
> with source code obfuscated so you can't understand it.
>  So you can't
> adapt it to your needs either.  For several of them, you
> don't even
> have permission to modify.  Some may even cause your
> license to the
> rest of the kernel to be automatically terminated, if as
> much as one
> of the 1500+ copyright holders of Linux decide to take it
> upon you.
Again, Doesn't the GPL umbrella protect users from this kind of behavior?
If this same GPL that is such veneered and loved by the FSF and others and it cannot protect its users, then its useless :(
> 
> Just compare linux-2.6.26.tar.bz2 with
> linux-2.6.26-libre1.tar.bz2 and
> you'll see how misled and fooled you were by the people
> you're siding
> with and promoting.

I was not misled, Since I installed my first Linux distribution Mandrake Linux 9.0 on one machine and the other Red Hat Linux 8.0 which then later I installed Red Hat Linux 9.0.  I did not see the GNU/Linux part till I visited Distrowatch.com and learned about Debian which used it, and I also got a copy of Knoppix Linux Live CD and it said GNU/Linux.  I grew to like the Linux name and plainly do not agree for the GNU to attach itselft <=GNU=>/Linux.  Remember also GNU is not Unix, and also GNU is not Linux.  

I see where you are coming from, but by looking at the things a little better, I would be shortchanged if I ran your kernel-libre, from the sites that you did not mention by the way 

http://fsfla.org/svnwiki/selibre/linux-libre/freed-ora

http://www.fsfla.org/download/linux-libre/freed-ora/F-9/

I can see the connection, but I do not believe that those kernels there support all the drivers and modules that are not free according to your specifiations.  

There are some drivers and/or modules that are supposedly non-free and your Freed-ora packages remove the non-free parts to produce a truly free kernel.  This same kernel can not support much of the stuff that the mainline kernel from Linus Torvalds or the defacto Fedora Kernels that come patched and blessed from the Fedora kernel developers.  Is that what I should believe?

If I ask you to build a true GNU/Linux based on Fedora, you have it and it is called BLAG.  
I see all the connections now.

> 
> -- 

Regards,

Antonio