Re: more evil firmwares found
On Apr 22, Evan Prodromou <evan@debian.org> wrote:
> >> Well, I think that's a mistake. At the very least, we should
> >> contact the firmware developers telling them why the stuff's
> >> coming out of Debian, and what they can do to get it back in.
> Md> "Nothing", in most cases.
> What do you mean? That most will choose not to provide firmware
> assembly code (or whatever)?
That almost every vendor will choose to not provide the firmware source
for one or more of these reasons:
- they do not own the rights (think about VxWorks used by some devices)
- they do not want to reveal information about how their hardware works
- they do not want to distribute the needed toolchain
- they are forbidden by the FCC
- only a few loons care about it
My opinion is that binary-only firmware files in the current situation
actually *help* free software because they let vendors ship free drivers
(think about the Intel Centrino wireless cards).
--
ciao, |
Marco | [5937 bi0s9.1ZtfEEA]
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