I have a screwy Nvidia card. I know from the last time I had to install Ubuntu I had to do a low graphics mode installer, is there or will there ever be a version of Ubuntu containing proprietary drivers as the driver software EULA allows for the distribution of their driver.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/Driver...ce.php?lang=us
Here is the exert:
2.1.2 Linux/FreeBSD Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux or FreeBSD operating systems, or other operating systems derived from the source code to these operating systems, may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).
As you have no issues including proprietary software on the CD and from what I see in Ubuntu Software Center actually go so far as selling closed source software, could you for the user who actually needs this, make a DVD version that includes an array of drivers, not changing the desktop minimalist paradigm, but including drivers to solve headaches pretty please. It really is a pain in the rear end for me to have to use the "alternative CD" or do nomodeset every time I want to freshly install each iteration.
You can make the Open Source only disk for the anal retentive in mind who NEED to have it open, but the obvious focus here is on the desktop and new users or users who want a smooth Linux without needing to know a whole lot about computers, and the FOSS fans are obviously not your projected audience.
How can someone with ANY sort of physical disability be expected to do this themselves. It was a COLOSSAL pain in the *** for me to install Ubuntu this time around due to this flaw. Before I could put the disk in and it booted without issues, this time I had to figure out how to do it myself. I have had issues with other versions in the past, 9.10 actually. Please fix this glaring issue. If you want people to use Linux please don't make it such a pain to use. If I wanted pain I would have stuck with Windows.
The reason I am making such a long post is that it took me about as much time to figure out how to get it to boot, then go to the desktop with the same issue, then having to reboot to the live CD to look up how to bypass this issue, then go back and install the driver. How do you expect ANYONE able bodied/minded or not to be able to do this? This is more of a question of ethics here than anything. If you project that your audience is somebody like me, a user who wants a desktop but doesn't want to know how or can't do it or it is very difficult for them, please just make it work. If that means using closed source FREE software, then do it, and mark it.
E.G. "Warning the NVIDIA/ATI/other closed source driver contained on this disk is closed source software and you must accept the respective EULA to download the DVD version.
If it is a question of licensing all them at once, make multiple versions or make the user accept every license or use the "standard" disk. I am not expecting multiple brands as in ATI version and NVIDIA version, but I do expect everything to work.
Is this bordering on self entitlement? Well sure it is and I understand that, but this would better the usage for the common user at large while not stepping on the freedoms of others. Ubuntu isn't for the 'gotta have it all be FOSS or else' crowd. For them, there are 18 billion other distributions, and if they give you flack, tell them where to go; back to another distribution. My issue here is that for people like me who can't do certain tasks very well (I wrote this in LibreOffice) found this to stand right in the way of Accessibility.