Re: NEW handling: About rejects, and kernels

[Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net>]

Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> writes:

> On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 11:09:21AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
>> Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> writes:
>> 
>> > On Thu, Mar 31, 2005 at 12:50:46AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote:
>> >> What I meant is that if the firmware is truly burned into the chup,
>> >> then I couldn't change it even if I had the source code.  It was wrong
>> >> to say that I don't *want* to modify it, but rather, that I *cannot*
>> >> do so.
>> >
>> > That's not true either. Manufacturers provide utilities to reprogram
>> > their embedded FLASH components, particularly motherboard manufacturers
>> > but also for disks, modems etc.
>> 
>> But lacking those tools, I can't modify it.
>
> Those tools exist, though I don't know if any of them are free.
> Would your position change if a free BIOS updater existed?

My position has nothing to do with that.

The previous version of this argument consisted in people saying that
it was impossible to usefully modify firmware, and so there was no
reason to insist on source.

But you have convinced me.  It *is* possible to usefully modify
firmware.  Now what?  Are you saying that I shouldn't care about
whether it's free *because* I could benefit from modifying it?!

Thomas