Re: LCC and blobs

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

Jose Carlos Garcia Sogo <jsogo@debian.org> writes:

> El dom, 12-12-2004 a las 00:22 +0100, Goswin von Brederlow escribió:
> [...]
>> 
>> Installing non-free firmware taints your filesystem, using AIM does
>> not.
>
>  Taints your filesytem??? Oh, this is more than I expected.
>
>  Are you really aware that your computer is plenty of non-freeness? That
> the device in which you store your filesystem is also non-free?

The hardware is non-free. But nothing in main should limit my freedom
to make as many copies of the contents as I like, to edit it, to
distribute it and changes and so on.

>  Of course I'd like that hardware manufacturers release their drivers as
> free software, but I think that the time for that is not even near.
> While, please tell me what is the difference in having such blob in a
> magnetic device as a HDD or in a magnetic device like FlashROM in your
> device. In both situations the driver loads the blob or initialize it.
> And won't work if it is not present. Well, it will work. It will tell
> you that the device doesn't work because it lacks the firmware.

In the hdd I can't distribute the contents of the hdd anymore, in the
flash I still can.

Having firmware in flash doesn't change the non-freeness of the
firmware but it doesn't restrict the freedom I have for the rest of
the system.

Does that make it clearer?

>  Cheers,
> -- 
> Jose Carlos Garcia Sogo
>    jsogo@debian.org

MfG
        Goswin