Re: Bug#353277: ndiswrapper in main
On 2/28/06, Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Feb 2006, Raul Miller wrote:
> > On 2/28/06, Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org> wrote:
> > > What's so different between my own non-free program and my own non-free
> > > card which requires a non-free driver to work with ?
> >
> > We can't distribute any hardware in main.
>
> We are speaking of something that the user has (and that is not in main
> obviously)... please think in the context of the replies.
Huh?
I'll try again:
When you ask about the difference between non-free
programs and non-free hardware the difference is:
hardware is not software.
Hardware can not be free in the DFSG sense any more than
Debian Developers can be free in the DFSG sense. Hardware
is not software any more than developers are software.
Both, obviously, are closely related to software, but
closely related is not "the same as".
We can have hardware that runs free software, and we
can have hardware that runs non-free software, but in
the context of Debian, it's meaningless to talk about
hardware being "free" or "non-free".
I reserve the right to distinguish between hardware
and software contained within that hardware, and
I'll be happy to discuss this issue with you in more
detail, and talk about how I see this relating to
the DFSG and Social Contract, but that is not the
question you posed.
--
Raul
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