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Posts: 3,790 | Thanked: 5,718 times | Joined on Mar 2006 @ Vienna, Austria
#57
Originally Posted by wmarone View Post
Logically, however, there's nothing on the market that supports Stallman's ideas. I'm sure he'd be the first to support one that did, much like how he moved to his longsoon-based laptop, even if it is ten years or more behind the times.

Indeed, the end-result for MeeGo as an OS (included on potentially heavily locked down devices, and absolutely no GPLv3 software) will fly in the face of what he says, which still amuses me that they used a quote or two from him at the LFCS workshop.
Maybe I'm getting it wrong, but I seriously believe that there's nothing in the mobile industry that comes as close to Stallman's ideas as MeeGo. Of course it's not the real thing, which would be GPLv3 all over and not one single proprietary bit. But still, it's as close as it gets nowadays... There is no other operating system that's basically all copyleft. (And don't forget that although LGPL - which MeeGo will largely be based upon - is not really a 'good' license, it was created by Stallman&friends, too, as an acceptable compromise.)

It's the trend it sets that amazes me about Maemo/MeeGo. Some years ago, it would have been considered unthinkable that companies like Nokia bet on the "communist" idea of open source, let alone free software. Then they started playing with it... and now it's a polished, beautiful, very capable device they put a lot of effort in. The way from then to now is what counts, not that MeeGo won't be GPLv3. If this trend continues, maybe we will see even fully GPLed devices like the N900 in another 5 years (or a little longer).
 

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