Non-free games for GNU / Linux: good or bad?
A well-known company, Valve, which distributes proprietary computer games with digital constraint control (known as DRM), recently announced that it will distribute these games under GNU / Linux. What good and bad consequences will it have?
I believe that the availability of popular non-free programs under GNU / Linux can help to master the system. However, our plans go further than to make this system “successful”; its purpose is to bring freedom to users. Thus, the question is how this change affects the freedom of users.
Non-free games (like other non-free programs) are unethical because they deny their users freedom. If you want freedom, then one of the conditions is the absence of these games on your computer. So far, everything is clear.
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However, if you are going to use these games, you should do it on GNU / Linux, and not on Microsoft Windows. At least you can avoid the harm that inflicts your freedom on Windows .
Thus, in a direct practical sense, this change can bring both harm and benefit. She could encourage GNU / Linux users to install these games, and she could encourage game users to replace Windows with GNU / Linux. In my feeling, the direct beneficial effect will be more than direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community?
Any GNU / Linux distribution that comes with programs offering these games will teach users that it’s not about freedom. Non-free programs in GNU / Linux distributions are already working against the goals of freedom. Adding these games to the distribution will enhance this effect.
If you want to promote freedom, please take care not to talk about the availability of these games under GNU / Linux as support for our cause. Instead, you could tell people about free pixel cup free games and free game games of the Gaming Society of the Free Planet .
Translated in the GNU Russian Translators Group - join www.gnu.org/server/standards/translations/en !
I believe that the availability of popular non-free programs under GNU / Linux can help to master the system. However, our plans go further than to make this system “successful”; its purpose is to bring freedom to users. Thus, the question is how this change affects the freedom of users.
Non-free games (like other non-free programs) are unethical because they deny their users freedom. If you want freedom, then one of the conditions is the absence of these games on your computer. So far, everything is clear.
')
However, if you are going to use these games, you should do it on GNU / Linux, and not on Microsoft Windows. At least you can avoid the harm that inflicts your freedom on Windows .
Thus, in a direct practical sense, this change can bring both harm and benefit. She could encourage GNU / Linux users to install these games, and she could encourage game users to replace Windows with GNU / Linux. In my feeling, the direct beneficial effect will be more than direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community?
Any GNU / Linux distribution that comes with programs offering these games will teach users that it’s not about freedom. Non-free programs in GNU / Linux distributions are already working against the goals of freedom. Adding these games to the distribution will enhance this effect.
If you want to promote freedom, please take care not to talk about the availability of these games under GNU / Linux as support for our cause. Instead, you could tell people about free pixel cup free games and free game games of the Gaming Society of the Free Planet .
Translated in the GNU Russian Translators Group - join www.gnu.org/server/standards/translations/en !
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/145064/
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