To: bap@debian.org (Barak A. Pearlmutter)

I'm well aware the discussion period is over, but I can't let that one pass, so bear with me.

Le vendredi, 2 avril 2021, 18.19:02 h CEST Barak A. Pearlmutter a écrit :

Fifty years ago a laserprinter didn't work right because of some
software issue and he couldn't fix it because the software in that
car-sized prototype Xerox laserprinter was proprietary and it pissed
him off and he vowed that one day *nobody* will be in that position.
He's holding fast to that vow. He still works tirelessly, every day,
to bring us that vision.

I've got a stupid Dell laserprinter 80cm from me and it doesn't work
right because of some stupid software issue and I can't fix it because
I don't have the source code. Nobody cares. Well, except RMS. He
cares.

As Debian Printing Team member, when you state that "Nobody cares" (about printing from Linux systems), I don't receive it particularily well [0]. Not for our work specifically (we're "just" maintainers), but for the tireless work from upstreams who brought the ecosystem up to a point at which I'm not afraid to claim that Debian Bullseye will ship with the best (Linux) printing user experience _ever_. Of course, this is not due to the release of FLOSS printer firmware [1], but rather to standardization of network (and wire) protocols, lots of software architecturing and writing, as well as intense lobbying to reach a point where virtually all newly sold printers support open standards, that are now supported "driverless", directly from standard Debian installs [2]. (Debian's not unique in that regard, it's all free software).

Although the initial trigger for the launch of the Free Sofware Foundation (and movement) might indeed have been a frustration with printers [3], from where I stand, I can reasonably state that OpenPrinting [4] _does_ care. Specifically, Till Kamppeter and Michael Sweet (among countless others) _do_ care. And their work has brought _immense_ progress for the specific question of "freedom to use printers in ways we see fit". I'm certainly not an expert on the history of these organizations, but it seems (to me) that we're at this point thanks to tireless efforts and industrial pragmatism from OpenPrinting (hence the Linux Foundation), the IEEE-ISTO Printer Working Group, Apple [5] and certainly others; but not particularily thanks to the FSF (or RMS) (notwithstanding the FSF's contribution to the principles of Free Software, of course).

RMS and the FSF certainly care for Free Software, but I'd refrain from using the "printers are bad proprietary machines, and printing from Linux sucks" example to illustrate that point: this particular problem was (mostly) solved by others; by turning this problem into "(recent) printers are bad proprietary machines that (mostly) follow open standards, hence printing from all OS' using (free) software implementing these standards is (mostly) flawless".

--
OdyX


[0] But I also took no offense, as I also read it as a hyperbole of sorts.
[1] But in an era where most electronics from dishwashers to wireless routers
to computer phones are essentially closed boxes of non-FLOSS
software+firmware+hardware combinations, insisting for the release of
FLOSS printer _firmware_ is not an effective way to reach our goals.
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/DriverlessPrinting
[3] https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/201cthe-printer-story201d-redux-a-testimonial-about-the-injustice-of-proprietary-firmware
[4] Currently a free software organization under The Linux Foundation.
[5] Yes, Apple acquired and then maintained CUPS under a FLOSS license for
quite some time!
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I certainly did not mean to disparage the efforts of the people
working on the Debian printing software, who have really raised the
bar. It's great that printers usually "just work", that they're
automatically sniffed off the net, etc. Every time I print a page I
remember the bad old days and am thankful for cups-browsed and all
that.

It seems fair to say that even in the Free Software community most
people have resigned themselves to purchasing devices with proprietary firmware, that can be modified or even examined only with the
cooperation of the manufacturers. They're all over: printers,
dishwashers, cars, televisions, treadmills, smart microphones, mobile
phones, smart bluetooth lightbulbs, implanted cardiac pacemakers, deep
brain stimulation devices. As a community we try to work around it:
get them to use standard protocols and interfaces. To be citizens of
that world. But not RMS. He's not happy with that status quo. He's not
okay with people having radio-controlled devices buried deep in their
flesh, able to kill them with an errant pulse, their behavior
ultimately controlled by others.

I'm a practical man. My house is filled with devices whose software is
either proprietary or, at best, Tivo-ized so it serves some other
master. But RMS saw the growing dangers of this sort of situation, and
I admire his vision in the matter, and his principles in fighting it
tooth and nail, never giving a quarter, never yielding for the sake of convenience.

This is not meant to minimize the enormous efforts many others,
including you in particular, have put into getting things like
software that interacts with broken proprietary printers (my sometimes-actually-prints but-always-happily-scans Dell B1165nfw, for
instance) to work. Rather it's to say that we may be soldiers in this
army: but RMS is the grizzled old sergeant, scarred and battleworn,
unwilling to negotiate with the enemy, unwilling to strike a temporary
bargain or sign a truce that compromises even a hair of a principle,
spitting invective at the practical politicians and comfortable
generals breaking bread with those who seek to control and subvert us,
pure to the last drop.

Sure, he smells bad, and has foul manners. He's terrible PR, a relic
and an embarrassment. And printers still aren't free, and maybe we've
made our peace with that. But he's going to keep fighting until they
are anyway.

--Barak.

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