a mail I just send to the fsf
I am a translator!
"Hi
I'm a free software user, my computer run with Trisquel, no proprietary software installed.
I have an issue I think is important.
Why does most people does not use Free operating system , free softwares and free drivers?
For a lot of them it's the lack of great free games.
I'm a C programmer, and I was thinking yesterday : "Well, let's make an MMORPG under GPL, could be fun".
Unfortunatly, there is a problem : the graphic card drivers does not support 3D...
I think i'm not the first one who want to make a free game but can't because the free hardware drivers does not support 3D, wich means we're stuck with tic tac toe games.. yeeha...
Public want to have fun with 3D games
Programmers want to have fun creating 3D games
What's the point about creating games if the free drivers can't handle them?
Actually, the only 3D card wich work great with free drivers is Intel.. they are really awfull 3D chipset.
I don't know about ATI
I have an Nvidia 9300GS, using the free nouveau driver (most advanced for the moment), I don't even support the basics compiz effect .. I mean ...
Can the FSF make the 3D support in free drivers a priority? Emacs work great now, I think we can work on something usefull for users.
Thanks
Henri Griesmar"
What do you think about it?
> For a lot of them it's the lack of great free games.
You might be interested in Trisquel Gamer, then.
http://trisquel.info/en/wiki/trisquel-gamer
> I have an Nvidia 9300GS, using the free nouveau driver (most advanced
for
> the
> moment), I don't even support the basics compiz effect .. I mean ...
Nouveau does not support 3D at all by the moment.
> Can the FSF make the 3D support in free drivers a priority? Emacs work
> great now, I think we can work on something usefull for users.
Writing drivers is the job of the manufacturer. The community is not here
to do their job for free and without help -in most cases with traps to
avoid it from getting done-. So, if something is a priority it should be to
boycott those companies that do not free their drivers not their specs
-like NVIDIA and ATI-, and buying from a company that does instead. BTW,
Intel graphic cards are not that bad.
I am a translator!
Intel isn't as powerfull as ATI or Nvidia
btw, gonna give a call to Nvidia France right now
It would be great to have 3D support but I think you don't need 3D to
develop great games. Plus, good programmers are not enough to create games
that would attract people to free software. You need an interesting story,
gameplay and art for that too; C is not enough.
Making a MMORPG could be great but I think game developers should try to
create small games first so that we can have more games in version 1.0
final.
--
Luis Felipe López Acevedo
http://introsmedia.tuxfamily.org/
I am a translator!
Well Nvidia seems to disagree about creating free drivers for they product.
I decide to take action and fight back
Petition just been created, and a page on my server telling why am I doing that and how to help (french, sorry) is up.
I am a translator!
By all means, put as much pressure on these companies as you can. Every little bit helps get the message out. But for volunteer programmers to make a suitable driver for highly complex chipsets that aren't even documented is impossible. Releasing free software drivers without any blobs is AMD's and NVidia's responsibility, and they fall short of it.
PlaneShift is an example of a fairly ambitious 3D MMORPG (still in alpha, though) for Unix-like systems. Unfortunately, only its engine is free. They made an unfortunate decision by deciding to keep all the content under a separate proprietary license (under the fallacy that it will lead to forks and artists won't want to contribute content if it can end up being reused, which the Nexuiz project would find laughable).
But if you want to work on a free software MMORPG, please don't let the driver conundrum our community faces discourage you. The PlaneShift engine, which is a modified Crystal Space engine and is very cross-platform, should be able to do whatever you wish for that type of game.
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I'm gonna start thinking at creating it, but It's better to put these companies on high pressure before starting to develop these kinds of softwares, so we can use the hardware at 100% on the soft' we develop :)
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It's also good to have a budget, a large team, massive quantities of time, and some reliable servers. ;) 3D MMORPGs are the hardest games to develop.
I happened to stumble on the site for a new online gaming service called OnLive: http://www.onlive.com/ (Flash site but links work) and http://www.onlive.com/service.html It's a completely online gaming service. I was thinking that this might have potential for a free software implementation of something similar, ie, using free Flash player, free software servers and free games. It might be a solution to the driver issue. Not sure though because I'm not a gamer or expert on this.
I am not a gamer, but I checked out the site. For now the service will only be offered in the continental U.S., requires a browser plugin (no mention of type or if it's free software or proprietary) and a 5MB internet connection.
Going back to the discussion on reasons for adoption (or lack of) fully free software, I would like to throw out some ideas and see what others think. The purpose of this is to seek out ideas or suggestions on how we can best use the resources we have to increase awareness and usage of fully free systems. Also, if this should be better in a separate thread let's do that.
First, let's look at the types of OS:
(A) Fully free (Trisquel, GNewSense, etc).
(B) Hybrid - Starts free and adds binary blobs or proprietary drivers/packages (Ubuntu, etc).
(C) Fully proprietary (Windows, OSX).
Next, let's look at the type of users:
(1) Personal, power user (gamer, video production, etc)
(2) Personal, recreational user
(3) Business user
For user (1), it seems the user's functional needs are best met by systems (B) and (C), with the main stumbling block to (A) being drivers. Of course of these two, we prefer that users choose (B). For now we can purchase hardware with free drivers and put pressure on manufacturers with non-free drivers. Personally, given the size of our community, I'm not sure if they really care, although that's not a reason to give up. Potential to gain fully free software users - limited to medium.
For user (2), it seems that system (A) should be able to meet all the user's functional needs and respects the user's freedom. This is my category. There may be some content (internet, DVD, etc) with limited accessibility, but we have the choice to not use that content. Potential to gain fully free software users - large.
For user (3), it seems that system (A) could be able to meet all the user's functional needs, depending on the type of content needed in the course of conducting business. There are free software versions of office suites, accounting software, and the like. There is TN5250 for those that need access to AS/400 systems. Most business users I know don't need 3D or special effects, and other than having dual monitors use have very basic video needs without eye candy. As long as specialized proprietary programs are not used, the potential to gain full free software users in this area could be large. Other than the use of specialized proprietary programs, two areas that need to be overcome are the use of Flash for some web content and use of certain codecs.
With respect to Flash, as personal users we can choose not to use sites that depend on Flash, but for business users this may not be viable. One entity that uses Flash for web content is the U.S. Government (I don't think they should, but that's another issue). I ran a test from one site that states "Flash version 7 or higher is required" using both Gnash and Swfdec. Using the website's dectection tool, Gnash showed as Flash 10.1.999 and Swfdec showed as Flash 9.0.999, however, the content did not display for either one.
As for the codecs, I understand that use of patented codecs may not pose a serious concern for personal users, but for business users it may be another issue.
This is rather long, but I wanted to put this out there and see what the response is. It has been years since I've done any major programming, but one area I can help with is building awareness and financial support for those that build and maintian the OS. I also wanted to make it clear that although I listed the potential growth gamers may not be as great as for other types of users, we should not ignore their needs or trying to help. IMHO as we gain users we will have more influence, so even if more non-gamers are added than gamers, the increased influence shold help the gamers in the long run.
I understand that games can be classified as non-essential, because they are. At the same time, what about 3D modelers and renderers and other computer users who need 3D capibility for another reason other than games? These tasks often need serious graphics capibility, and they can't be simply brushed away. I find it hard to believe that the FSF would just say "tough luck" to these kinds of people.
Just a thought.
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The FSF doesn't say "tough luck" to these people, far from it. But there is only so much that unpaid programmers can do without direct input and documentation of the GPU manufacturers. If anything, it's AMD and NVIDIA that are saying "tough luck".
I want to make sure you didn't think I was classifying all uses of 3D as non-essential (that's why I listed gaming, video production, etc). There are plenty of graphics applications that are video intensive. Perhaps I could have divided business users into power users (video, graphics, CAD, and the like) and non-power users (email, documents, accounting, browsing, and the like).
Manufacturers like AMD and nVidia want to sell hardware, and right now the Free Software users are a relatively small group. With size comes influence, and my goal was to seek out ideas on the best way to increase our size, including what groups might have the easiest transition, in order to build influence. Look at it this way; if we accounted for 50% of the market instead of perhaps 1%, you can bet there would be fully free GPUs available.
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We can expand our market right now mainly by absorbing users of the popular distributions, esp. Ubuntu. Trisquel is the only fully-free distribution that approaches the features and user-friendliness of the major distributions (insofar as this is possible without including any proprietary software). What's important is the number of users that consciously defend their freedoms in using GNU/Linux. If the GNU/Linux market shoots up to 10%, but all those users are politically apathetic and are using something on the order of Linux Mint, that won't necessarily convince the hardware manufacturers to change their policies.
True. In the <1% I was refering to just the GNU/Linux users with fully free distributions. If Microsoft and Apple disappeared tomorrow and GNU/Linux use went all the way to 100%, but was still dominated by distributions that include non-free code, we'd still be in the same situation.