Re: Lost Trust

[Ed <else@austin.rr.com>]

Many of you have suggested that a Debian User of Sarge needs to be reading 
d-d, so be it.  I've been reading like crazy, but without knowing the 
author's standing in the community, it's been hard knowing which views are 
mainstream.  It would really be nice if there was a slashdot type scoring 
system to indicate which messages had broad support and which are irrelevant.

Some have suggested that this is a learning opportunity for me to leave behind 
pre-built kernels and build my own.  This has been my mode of operation for 
years.  I've always installed and booted a distribution's kernel then 
configured and built a custom kernel.  The problem here is that tg3.c is just 
gone!  It is not in the debian patch,  nor is it even in the .orig source 
file.  I thought .orig was suppose to be the upstream source untouched by 
Debian?

In another tread, Joe said:
> I was referring to the tg3 driver. Debian did not have any legal right
> to distribute the firmware in it

But Broadcom has released the driver and the hex representation of the 
firmware patch under GPL.  See:
http://www.broadcom.com/drivers/driver-sla.php?driver=570x-Linux

So, is it Debian's position that the GPL license is not valid for this piece 
of work because we suspect the hex representation of the firmware patch is 
not "the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it."?

If so, this seems fraught with problems.  Has the Debian Developer taken it 
upon themselves to second guess an upstream copyright holder's ability to 
release code under GPL?

Thanks for all the feedback.  It is helping alittle, but this attitude 
(policy?) that the user comes second still scares me.

Ed Swarthout
Austin, Texas