Re: New summary: Binary peripheral software
--- Adrian Bunk <bunk@fs.tum.de> wrote:
> Should this cover Microcode updates for the host CPU?
Some people would refer to microcode as firmware, some wouldn't.
You have pointed out another way in which 'firmware' is ambiguous.
We don't need to use the term 'firmware'. Microcode, BIOSes,
DSP code, kernels and apps are all different kinds of software.
Any of them might be distributed by Debian. (Some instances of
them don't need to be distributed by Debian because they are
stored in non-volatile memory by the hardware manufacturer;
that's good because many of those instances happen to be non-free
and have no free substitutes.) As software, Debian's treatment
of them has to be subject to the Debian Free Software Guidelines,
in my opinion. I think it would be absurd if Debian treated
documentation as software (which it is doing) but didn't treat
all software as software.
--
Thomas
________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping"
your friends today! Download Messenger Now
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html
Reply to: