Ubuntu Wiki

Dear Mark, dear Ubuntu developers,

We the undersigned petition you to reconsider your decision of including binary drivers by default in the next Ubuntu release. We believe, as you do, that it should be as easy as possible for end users to enable extra functionality via closed software when necessary and if they so wish, but only after an explicit acknowledgement and only after being informed about the issues at stake and possible alternatives. Users can be given the option to install closed drivers/software during installation or soon after installation or when an application that may require such software is run for the first time. It is a small change, but one that will avoid dividing the community on an issue that many hold dear, without sacrificing ease of use and product appeal. We therefore encourage you to opt for easy-installation as opposed to pre-installation.

Many thanks for your attention,

1. Agostino Russo
2. Onkar Shinde

3. BaishampayanGhose

4. Steven Dilworth
5. Florent Mertens
6. Slava Chemodanov
7. Dan Bishop

8. João Crespo - Why not let the problem of blobs installation up to the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CommonCustomizations common customizations] spec (a GUI somewhere at system » administration or something similar)? is the solution found to all the other non-free stuff instead of bundling with for default or asking the user during the install if he wants flash, codecs, etc....

9. TobySmithe

10. Alon Zakai
11. Volker Löchte
12. Roy Schestowitz
13. Shane Coyle
14. Stian Rødven Eide
15. Mark Grandi - just make it so during installation, tells you about them, and asks you if you want them or not.
16. Mackenzie Morgan

17. Stuart McNeill

18. Dustin Widmann
19. Tareeq Ali
20. Andrew Poelstra

21. FirdausAziz

22. Matthew Flaschen
23. Terry Harrison
24. Ali Davoodifar
25. Albert van Aardt
26. Jeffrey Parke
27. Chris Warburton
28. David Nielsen - First it was wifi, then it was graphics. What freedom and supportability is going to fall at the hand of temporary highly limited functionality next? Instead of doing this we should fund and support work towards bridging the functionality gap with free drivers.
29. Lloyd Almeida
30. Guy Johnston - I only use GNU/Linux and other free software for the freedom it allows me. My next installation is likely to be gNewSense. If this increase in installing proprietary software by default continues, it definitely will be, and I won't use Ubuntu or any of its official variants again.
31. James Buchanan
32. Paulo Gomes

33. Matthias Lehr - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

34. Lutz Reinhardt

35. Saul Goode - It is contrary to the philosophy espoused in http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/philosophy

36. Holger Bauer
37. Jan Rathmann
38. Gregor Geiermann
39. Tim Pretz
40. Frederik Tuczek
41. Norbert Fabritius
42. Anke Kernbach
43. Marc Hildebrandt
44. Alexander Menk
45. Marcus Fihlon
46. Maxim Lapis
47. Sebastian Kotowski

48. Xinchi Yu - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

49. Michael Kehraus
50. Rüdiger Dick -Duisburger Linux User Group ( www.dulug.de )
51. Amir Hadi
52. Chris Lees
53. Thorsten Tasch
54. Dimitri Vorona (aka Alendit)
55. Christian Schoch
56. Søren Schneider
57. Simon Schlosser

58. Matthias Mailänder - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

59. Clemens Blank - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

60. David Becher
61. Sven Jaborek, people who want blobby linux should go to novell

62. Andreas Gutowski - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

63. Roberto Amato - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

64. Simon Bürger

65. Bernhard Hanakam - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/ - Please give the user the opportunity to choose, because this is what linux is. A GUI is IMHO a good solution, but the closed drivers should stay in restricted, not in the default installation. Mark and all the others: don't let ubuntu become some stuff like SuSE. Keep thinking of bug #1!

66. Ueli Zahnd
67. Andreas Schmauss

68. Richard Hirner - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/ - I have installed and recommended Ubuntu Linux to many people, but I won't support another "Lindows"

69. Oliver Gellner
70. Martin Gräßlin - Why don't you try to persuade the companies to change their closed source drivers to open source? That would be the best for the users.
71. David Fu - maybe gNewSense does make sense after all.
72. Carsten Schmidt

73. AndreasGnau - The user has to be informed about both the advantages and disadvantages.

74. Marco Hunseler - Please, dont do that :-\
75. Gaurav Mishra - this will forget the real ubuntu spirit and will be followed by the commercial market requirements ,
76. Hendrik Thaer

77. Dieter Komendera - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

78. Mitja Kleider
79. Matt Medland

80. IanDarwin - Every single time you install a binary blob driver, you convince some big company that "open source" just doesn't matter. Is that what you want to do?

81. Christian Wagner - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

82. [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DavidTangye David Tangye] - In addition I also support (see http://boycottnovell.com/category/ubuntu/ "12.23.06 Ubuntu No Blobs By Default Petition"): "put a button that sends an email to the detected hardware vendor complaining about this extra step. Then, vendors will see just how many customers it does affect and act; by Ubuntu doing it for the end user without interaction, there will be no market backlash or incentive to open up."

83. Frederik Elwert
84. Marian Sigler
85. Björn Kunze
86. Gustav Andréasson
87. Marcel Miebach
88. Jussi Kukkonen
89. Heinrich Franz
90. Simon Streit

91. Christian Niemeyer - via http://www.ubuntuusers.de/ikhaya/354/

92. [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Attitude Ivan Jelic]

93. [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Ivanpetrovic Ivan Petrović]

94. MilanPrvulovic

95. [http://fn.goa-india.org Frederick "FN" Noronha, Goa, India]

96. Bartosz Bogacz - please don't forget that many of us are using linux because its open-source and not because its better or free
97. Tom H - I am in favour of a program installed by default which presents the user with information on binary blobs and asks whether he/she wishes to install them.
98. Matias Särs
99. Dustin Sandell - In favor of original install offering a choice about installing binary blobs once. (Not repeatedly.)
100. Sámal Rasmussen

101. [http://samomalo.hermani.info Marko Herman]

102. Nishant Sharma

103. KartikMistry

104. Aleksandar Negovanovic
105. Zoran Olujic
106. Nick Ferguson

107. MarkusMajer (["mpathy"])

108. David Brady - I use the binary drivers, but I do not think that they should be installed by default.

109. Christoph Domin - via http://forum.studium-bingen.de/viewtopic.php?t=64

110. Manuel Schindler - via http://forum.studium-bingen.de/viewtopic.php?t=64

111. TormodVolden - I have to use a binary GPU driver on my machine, but at least I am aware of it and I hope to get rid of it one day.

112. Håvard Espeland

113. JeremyMcCoy

114. ["PWill"]
115. Vassilis Pandis

116. [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Milan_p Milan Puzic]

117. Peter Levi - Ubuntu won me over XP by being free and open. It does not work better for me, quite the contrary. 3D acceleration won't change a thing in this aspect - I hardly find it necessary for the average user, and it is useless for me. But binary drivers would mean Ubuntu's greatest and most important advantage will diminish.
118. Niko Manos
119. Celso Araujo - Free by default, non-free by choice!

120. KarlGoetz