Re: On the freeness of a BLOB-containing driver
Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com> wrote:
> Is a driver that loads a BLOB Free Software? The problem is connected
> with distribution. The BLOB is unquestionably software. It runs below
> the bus, which is our /usual /demarcation between Free Software and the
> rest of the system, but it starts life above the bus at boot time, and
> *we have to distribute it.
In many cases, we do not have to distribute it. We could -
alternatively, we could use the copy that the user has on a CD
already[1].
Bruce, why do you keep sending HTML?
[1] This isn't true for a small set of drivers - the ipw2100 requires
different firmware for Linux and Windows.
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.devel@srcf.ucam.org
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