The author of The Cathedral and The Bazaar, which put into words the theory of open source development, has joined the group in an attempt to ensure that software vendors and technology device companies support the Linux desktop.
Desktop Linux must advance now, said Raymond in a statement. If desktop Linux is to advance to a broader audience, it must work with iPods and other MP3 players, play DVD movies, view Windows Media and Quick Time content on the web, and so on.
I wish users didn’t require these proprietary formats, but it’s naive and unrealistic to expect the masses to forgo these requirements in the near future. Linux must make some compromises to attract mainstream users, he added.
Linspire has in the past courted controversy in the open source movement for its commitment to supporting proprietary formats and technologies with its desktop Linux distribution.
There simply aren’t enough Linux users today to put much pressure on hardware and software manufacturers, said Raymond. To attract more users, Linux must support the popular drivers and file types in use today. Freespire is the one distribution I see willing to make this unfortunate but necessary compromise, so I’m happy to contribute to their effort.
Linspire’s Freespire project was launched in August. While licenses and code for proprietary extensions are not available with Freespire, the project does include details of what they are and where they can be found, enabling users who choose to do so to piece together a full operating system with those proprietary extensions.
