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Re: Don't understand the trouble with firmware !



On Sat, May 15, 2004 at 07:02:03PM +0200, Michelle Konzack wrote:
> 
> I think, there is realy no problem to put closed-source firmware in 
> "non-free" but make it easy to get the firmware downloaded (with wget) 
> if we can not distribute it with Debian (like the mgmt.o)
> 

The problem is that some of that firmwares are needed e.g. for some
ethernet cards (which could cause installation of the system impractical 
or difficult on many off-the-shelf systems) or for common graphic cards.

That's not a simple problem of 'modules'. In some cases it could require 
to patch properly and rebuild the X server, the kernel or what else. 
Of course all that could be done, but I personally cannot find a good 
reason why John Newbie could be find convenient to do that, instead of 
installing Fedora or what else.

And what if next processors will require downloading firmware to work?

-- 
Francesco P. Lovergine



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