Re: LCC and blobs
Peter Van Eynde <pvaneynd@mailworks.org> writes:
> Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
>> Some firmware is part of the hardware. Some isn't. It's easy to tell
>> -- either it's in the hardware or it isn't. Of course, the name
>> "firmware" should make it clear that this is an often ambiguous line.
>> But this does seem to be a good practical place: can anybody with the
>> device and the driver use it? Or are there some people who even with
>> a functioning, complete device and a driver who can't get it to work?
>
> This is not only a feature of a device with firmware. Some hardware
> you cannot buy, you only get a license to use it. If I remember
> correctly you never "buy" an EMC, you only get permission to use it
> and have to pay every year to continue to use it.
>
> So you want to rip out all fiber-channel drivers because they might be
> used to connect to an EMC?
No. They have useful functionality in connecting to other
fiber-channel devices. Open standards are a nice thing. The
fiber-channel devices have no dependency on the EMC hardware -- and
even if they did, Debian doesn't express dependencies on hardware in
its packaging system.
>>>I see no limitation of my freedom in using firmware. Please tell me
>>>how I am limited in my freedom. If I wanted a open source firmware I
>>>could buy a device with open firmware,
>> Then Windows isn't proprietary either. Sigh.
>
> It is, but does the fact that I can boot it with grub limit my freedom?
Of course not -- and grub can boot Linux or the Hurd, too. So Grub
has no dependency on Windows.
-Brian
--
Brian Sniffen bts@alum.mit.edu
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