3rd Fellowship Raffle to attract more Fellows

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

    ams> Then the only right thing to do is to not recommend any
    ams> device,

   That is why no device is being recommended.

   As was pointed out by others before, this part of the raffle is
   about giving developers access to hardware that is coming closest
   to our goals and thus give them the best start in making them
   entirely free.

By distributing a device to people that contains non-free software
FSFE is clearly recommending the device.  That is what I thought when
I saw the notice, and I'm quite sure others did the same.  My initial
thought was (before knowing anything about the non-free software) was
how cool that companies like Nokia and others are trying to do the
right thing and respect the rights of computer users.

I find the whole claim that using a lottery based system to get
someone to write a free replacement for these things to be quite
absurd to say the least.  Do you really belive that from a random set
of indiviuals, someone will have not only the time, but also the
knowledge to replace the non-free software bits with something that is
free?

    ams> And this is by distributing devices that contain `almost
    ams> entirely Free Software'?

   Without access to Ubuntu, Gnewsense would not exist.

How do you know?  Gnewsense might have been created either from
scratch or based on another system.  Alas, my crystal ball is broken,
and I suspect that yours is as well...  In anycase, Gnewsense does not
contain non-free software, Ubuntu and Debian do.


I find it even more frightening that you are trying to justify these
actions and that the FSFE has some kind of responsibility in providing
people with non-free software.

I hope that the FSFE will do the right thing, and remove all devices
that contain non-free software from the raffle.

Cheers.