Re: Debian trademark [was: Debian GNU/w32, may ready to be started?]

[Adam Majer <adamm@galacticasoftware.com>]

On Sat, Dec 08, 2001 at 01:39:07PM +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 07, 2001 at 10:53:38AM -0800, John H. Robinson, IV wrote:
> > i hesitate to call ``firmware'' ``software''
> 
> Why's that? It's compiled or assembled like regular software
> and is usually written by software engineers. So why isn't
> it software?

You have a point _but_ I tend to agree with John - firmware doesn't need
to be software. It is there only to provide the standard interface to
hardware - this used to be done without firmware at all, it was
hardcoded. There are CPUs available that will reconfigure themselves
thus are not hardcoded. Would you call them software as well?

I tend to define software as anything that _you_ load onto hardware that
is not specific to that hardware configuration. Specific doesn't mean as
general as i386 but something like Asus K7V boards. Or ATI Radeon BIOS.

I look at Linux or Hurd as providing an interface to the hardware not
BIOS drivers, etc...

-- Adam