Re: [PLUG] <compumike:#plug> dude debian rocks!

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Thu, Jan 03, 2002 at 03:27:43PM -0500, Mike Leone wrote:
> So by using Apple you are in no way "free from a standard controlled by a
> single entity", as the main hardware (and accompanying firmware, I believe)
> can only be built by/purchased from Apple.

Rubbish. The ROM (OpenFirmware, based on Sun's OpenBoot, also open),
and most of the hardware buses (PCI, USB, SCSI, EIDE) are entirely
open standards, and Apple builds hardware (mostly) compliant to
them. Hell, even the processor architecture is an open standard.
Remember CHRP?

If Free software is a political issue for you, you're going to
hamstring yourself out of a lot of good, open things. That's just
silly. Imho.

(Uh... not to say, exactly, that I think OpenFirmware is a *good*
thing, mind you, but it's mostly workable in the new world macs...)

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

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