Debian's Linux kernel continues to regress on freedom
I'm not sure I can take the Debian kernel team seriously any more.
http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing states, in part:
>Debian kernel team identifies the following three types of firmware, currently
>found in the Linux kernel:
>
>1. Sourceless binary blobs with no license, no explicit permission to
>redistribute, or
> an explicit prohibition to redistribute.
>
> This category currently includes the dabusb, dgrs, emi62, keyspan, smctr,
> cops, emi26, and 3c359 drivers. Removal of these drivers will have minimal
> impact on the users, as they are believed to be unpopular and not likely to
> be required during the installation.
....
>It has been agreed within Debian kernel team, that the firmware in category 1
>is not acceptable in Debian. It is the intention of the kernel team to prune the
>affected drivers from the upstream tarball.
The most recent linux-source-2.6.22 contains the following files:
drivers/media/video/dabfirmware.h
drivers/net/drgs_firmware.c
drivers/usb/misc/emi26_fw.h
drivers/usb/misc/emi62_fw_m.h
drivers/usb/misc/emi62_fw_s.h
drivers/usb/serial/keyspan_mpr_fw.h
drivers/usb/serial/keyspan_usa*_fw.h (11 files)
drivers/net/tokenring/smctr_firmware.h
drivers/net/appletalk/cops_ltdrv.h
drivers/net/appletalk/cops_ffdrv.h
drivers/net/tokenring/3c359_microcode.h
In other words, *all* of the above drivers. It's even worse than that. Look
at the information about drgs:
>may 20:
>
>> Dear Andres:
>>
>> After further research, we found that this product was killed in place
>> and never reached the market. We would like to request that this not be
>> included.
>
>There will be no users impacted by pulling support.
>
> -dil
Non-free material is being included in main for the benefit of *precisely zero*
users. There's no two ways about this: this is a Social Contract violation.
Coming back to looking at Debian after being preoccupied by family business, I
see that the kernel team is not even seriously trying to separate out any
non-free material. There have been severe regressions from sarge and no attempt
is being made to fix them.
I guess the Social Contract really is a joke. I don't know why new applicants
are supposed to agree to it. Old members apparently violate it at will for years
with no consequences.
It doesn't make me respect Debian very much.
--
Nathanael Nerode <neroden@fastmail.fm>
Read it and weep.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html
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