Free? was: will ubuntu know my printer?

[admin]

i find that a harsh conclusion but at the very least still an 
interesting one
the difference between linux being free and pirate music being free is 
that the developers of linux actually want you to have linux for free, 
where music artists want you to pay.

my main puzzle is, if TurboPrint have a driver for the MP130, why can't 
i find that driver for free? why has one company hoarded that driver 
and not released it to anyone else? and where did that driver come 
from? did turboprint make? obviously they did, otherwise the driver 
would be available from other sources, if not included in the latest 
ubuntu distro.

in any case, if the developers of free software wanted something in 
return for their work the software would not be free. i think its rude 
to put software out there, tell people its free, but end by saying 
you'd appreciated something in return. my 2 cents anyway :)









On 20/09/2005, at 7:00 PM, David wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 02:44:06AM +1000, admin wrote:
>> thanks for the reply
>> i had looked into turboprint a few days ago
>> i'm hesitant in paying for software when the whole idea of linux is 
>> for
>> it to be free
> <soapbox>
> well.. since you are referring to price, that isn't quite right. The 
> whole
> idea is for gnu/linux to be free as in free speech.
>
> I pay for OSS all the time, and I'm happy to do so. Most business and 
> lots
> of private users are like me. If you can't pay, you can code, and if 
> you
> can't code, then after you learn, you can help others who are 
> learning. A
> happy side effect is that we get a lot of stuff for nothing, such as
> linux, ubuntu, gnome, apache etc etc.
>
> If you only get into OSS 'cos you are unwilling to pay for the
> software which some skilled person has gone to the trouble to
> create, then perhaps you are no better than the person who pirates
> software and music etc  ............
> </soapbox>
>
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