<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> <!-- Parent-Version:1.771.99 --> <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> <title>Optionally Free Is Not Enough - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> <!--#include virtual="/distros/po/optionally-free-not-enough.translist" --> <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> <div class="article reduced-width"> <h2>Optionally Free Is Not Enough</h2> <div class="thin"></div> <p>There are distros we decline to recommend that offer the user the option of installing only free software. Given that option, a user who values freedom strongly enough, and thinks about the issue, can make those distros respectherper freedom.</p> <p>A distro that offers that option is clearly better than one that fails to offer that option. But that option does not make the distro ok to recommend in general. After all, most people in our community are not conscious of this issue. We cannot expect most of them to choose to reject nonfree software just because the distro offers a way to doso.</p> <p>So ifso. And weare considering whetherdon't want torecommend a distro, we needlead people toconsiderinstall nonfree software. We've chosen our practices to make that unlikely.</p> <p>Thus, our decision about recommending a distro depends on who we would recommend it to. For instance, it could be:</p> <ol> <li>Specific committed free software supporters that we know will make an effort to avoid nonfree software.</li> <li>A largegroupand diverse group, suchas perhapsas, perhaps, thegeneral public.</li>public in general.</li> </ol><p>For the first case, we<p>We could recommend the distro privately to people in that first group if the distro provides a clear and reliable way to reject nonfree software.</p> <p>However,forwhen it comes to recommending a distro to the general public, weneed toshould insiston the criteria(and weactually use:do insist) on an explicit commitment not to offer or suggest any nonfree programs. That way, we knowtheour recommendation of that distro won't lead the public to install any of those.</p> <p>What distros should an install fest recommend or install for the public? On moral grounds, an install fest should not recommend or install nonfree programs. However, people will bring computers that need nonfree drivers or firmware blobs in order to run at all—without those, they will go away disappointed and consider GNU/Linux a failure.</p> <p>We thought of an idea for how to reconcile these two needs: the install fest installs a free distro, then “<a href="/philosophy/install-fest-devil.html">the devil</a>” (a person wearing a devil mask) offers to install the nonfree drivers or blobs that machine needs.</p> </div> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> <divid="footer">id="footer" role="contentinfo"> <div class="unprintable"> <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, replace it with the translation of these two: We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p>For information on coordinating andsubmittingcontributing translations of our web pages, see <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>. --> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating andsubmittingcontributing translations of this article.</p> </div> <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should be under CC BY-ND3.0 US.4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the document was modified, or published. If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> <p>Copyright ©20142012, 2021, 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creativehref="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative CommonsAttribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesAttribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> $Date: 2024/03/25 08:36:10 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div></div></div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> </body> </html>