Re: Bug#353277: ndiswrapper in main (was: Bug#353277: should be in contrib)
Josselin Mouette writes:
> Le samedi 18 février 2006 à 21:32 -0500, Michael Poole a écrit :
> > > I wonder why all people go on trying to build up tons of different
> > > fallacious reasonings to keep firmwares in main. Non-free is here for a
> > > reason, we just have to use it. Technical solutions to have the driver
> > > in the kernel or in contrib, and the firmware in non-free, exist.
> >
> > Sure. The unfortunate side effect is that some reasonable fraction of
> > people who would use those drivers cannot install from install media
> > that contain only Debian. They require bits of non-free. As is often
> > pointed out, Debian has chosen (twice) to make life hard for those
> > users. I guess the preferred solution for them is to just use some
> > other distribution.
>
> Please stop these lies. I repeat: technical solutions do exist. For
> hardware unnecessary at installation's first stage, it is only a matter
> of making non-free available. For hardware necessary for the first
> stage, it would be possible to make the installer load udebs from
> alternate sources, but the people who'd be interested in it are
> spreading lies on debian-devel instead of working on the code.
Exactly what is the "technical solution" for installing drivers for
firmware-requiring hardware if you only have Debian proper (i.e. main)
available? That is the situation I described, and I really do not see
any technical solution for it, no matter how much you call it a lie.
If installation media for Debian must include arbitrary bits of
non-free, it makes the distinction between "main" and those bits
rather pointless and arbitrary.
Michael Poole
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