Re: LCC and blobs

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>]

* Peter Van Eynde 

| > Architectural plans for a house, shipped in a Debian package, are
| > software.
| 
| I'm stunned. So anything in a Debian package is software. With alien I
| can convert a tar.gz into a debian package, so all tar files are
| software. With tar I can create a tar.gz from any file, so all
| electronic data is software?

Yes, for the purposes of the DFSG, it is.

| - all bootloaders. Grub cannot start my XP without the XP bootsector.

but grub itself is free and works with free kernels, ergo no
dependency on XP.  It can use XP, but that's totally besides the
point. 

| - tftpd. I want to netboot my Solaris machines. The tftpd needs the
| solaris code to "work".

Same for this -- tftpd itself is free and it has free data to work
with.

| - all font renderers. I want to see a document with the font I bought,
| and without it the document is broken, so the renderer needs the font,
| right?

No, because there exists free fonts.  That there exists non-free fonts
which it can use is besides the point.

| - all interpreters. I want to run HACMP. It is in perl, so the perl is
| useless to me without HACMP.

To you, sure, but there exists free programs and perl itself is free,
so perl can go to main.

| - the kernel. I want to ship a stripped down debian with my non-DFSG
| code in an embedded system. The kernel is useless without my code, so
| the kernel cannot be in main.

But it can work with free hardware and is itself free.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen                                                        ,''`.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are      : :' :
                                                                      `. `' 
                                                                        `-