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Re: On the freeness of a BLOB-containing driver



Op za, 11-12-2004 te 20:12 -0500, schreef Glenn Maynard:
> On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 04:43:48PM -0800, Bruce Perens wrote:
> > What about the rest of the driver? I think that if you remove the BLOB, 
> > it's Free Software. It talks to a bus interface, which is a natural 
> > demarcation between our Free Software and the proprietary hardware 
> > design. It loads an arbitrary firmware file into the device. The device 
> > might not work without the BLOB, but the driver's still free as long as 
> > it does not incorporate the BLOB.
> 
> It's free, but it has a non-optional dependency on non-free software,

If it does, then Samba depends on non-free software as well.

-- 
         EARTH
     smog  |   bricks
 AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
soda water |   tequila
         WATER
 -- with thanks to fortune



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