On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 1:48 PM, John Cliff <john.cliff@...400...> wrote:

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 2:16 PM, Felipe Sanches <juca@...2270...> wrote:
>
>> Not all inkscape users on linux have any qualms about the propietary
>> drivers, be it due to ideology or any other reason.
>
> Inkscape is a free software project.
> Then, we shouldn't implement something that REQUIRES users to install
> proprietary drivers.

We shouldnt require something that requires them to install
proprietary drivers, but to outright ignore the possibilty because its
not free is just daft.

I am not ignoring the possibility. I am explicitely opposing it.

The graphics card your running on isnt open,
the processor your using isnt open, yet we use them. Personally I dont
mind using proprietary drivers, I already made the choice to buy their
hardware, why cant I choose to use their driver? If theres a speed
gain to be had, we would we not even consider it based on ideology?
Main thought was can it be a Cairo backend?

Regarding your comments about "opennes" of processors and video cards... hardware is hardware, software is software: there are different technical and political considerations about each and we dont have to treat hw and sw the same way, since hw and sw are not the same thing.

I think that there is a consensus that Inkscape is a project committed to software freedom. Since drivers are software, it seems to me that our policy towards drivers is the same.