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Re: LCC and blobs



On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:53:51 +0100, Peter Van Eynde <pvaneynd@mailworks.org> said: 

> Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
>> Peter Van Eynde <pvaneynd@mailworks.org> writes:
>>> And now you consider it software just because the method of
>>> storage is different? How can the nature of the bytes change
>>> because they are stored on a disk?
>> The nature of the bytes do not change.  But my name, distributed in
>> a Debian package, is software.  My name, written in letters of
>> granite

> You name is software!  Now I'm a Common Lisp hacker, you know the
> data is code people, but even _we_ do not consider a string software
> unless it drives some software.

> Is your name input for a state-machine?

>> 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. Software, hardware, wetware. One of these three.

> And you restrictions that any package that depends on non-DFSG
> "software" to work cannot be in main means that after releasing
> sarge we have to remove from main:

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

	Umm, you have configured grub to use optional software. Grub
 on my boxes can boot my machines just fine, so there is no general
 dependency.

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

	In that case. I can have tftpd booting Linux kernels -- so
	tftpd does not need solaris, though it can be so configured.

> - 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?

	Wrong again, but that's just the patternm. The font renderer
 can render any fonts, including non-free ones.

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

	I think you really really need a course in logic and
 causation. 

> - 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.

	The kernel is, in general useful without non-free software.

> Should I go on?
	Sure, but preferably after you have taken some courses in
 basic logic.

	manoj
-- 
"At least they're ___________EXPERIENCED
incompetents"
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C



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