Free as in Freedom

[Darrin Chandler]

Many (most) of you are well aware of the need and benefits of Free
Software / Open Source software. Linux isn't just about saving bucks.

There's a new resource to help keep tabs on how nicely vendors are
playing in the Free/Open world. Check out http://www.vendorwatch.org/ to
see who's helping and who's hurting Free Software.

This is very new, but it's a great idea that could help all of us in
several ways:

1. Know what hardware has specs released. This mean community supported
drivers. This means the hardware works for you! This means the vendor
"gets it" and wants *your* business.

2. Know which vendors to avoid, due to blob-only drivers or vendor
supplied "open source" drivers full of magic numbers.

3. Coordinate efforts to let vendors know what we expect of them before
we'll purchase their hardware.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |