Re: Bug#239952: kernel-source-2.6.4: qla2xxx contains non-freefirmware
On Sat, Mar 27, 2004 at 03:23:47PM -0500, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> > This is fine, until we start getting users complaining that Debian
> > doesn't work on their system because the new installer include
> > non-free by default.
> Tell them "Buy a system with hardware with free firmware, or use non-free
> software".
The only device with free firmware that comes to mind are old symbios or
adaptec scsi controllers. For the other devices you just don't see the
firmware because it's included in an flash device on the hardware. So
you say a device is evil because it doesn't have a flash to store the
firmware but wants it downloaded from the host harddisk?
This dousn more than silly.
> This is a problem, though not perhaps in the way you're thinking. In the
> long run, if more and more hardware uses OS-loaded non-free firmware,
> you'll end up with more and more of your system running non-free software.
> Eventually, in this nightmare scenario, all hardware will require non-free
> code to activate, and that code will control what you can do with the
> hardware....
Most hardware already does. Starting with the firmware/bios on 99% of
the computers in the world.
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