On Fri, Jan 09, 2004 at 07:42:06AM -0500, Walter Landry wrote: > MJ Ray <mjr@dsl.pipex.com> wrote: > > On 2004-01-09 03:48:49 +0000 Joel Konkle-Parker <jjk3@msstate.edu> > > wrote: > > > > > I guess the meat of my question applies to ndiswrapper > > > <http://ndiswrapper.sf.net> as well. ndiswrapper itself is GPL, > > > but to work properly, requires the Windows drivers for the network > > > devices it is trying to configure. Does this somehow prevent it > > > from going into Debian, or could the package just request those > > > files from a Windows partition or something? > > > > Does ndiswrapper require them to work properly? The main part of > > ndiswrapper is a kernel module that I think provides an API normally > > found on Windows. The package also provides tools to load and use the > > Windows drivers. Even with no Windows driver loaded, the API is there, > > so it could be seen as "working properly" but unused. As far as I can > > tell, the Windows drivers are not used by the build process at all. > > I think it is analogous to Quake. Quake's source is free, but to do > anything useful (or fun) requires the shareware wads. So until > someone actually writes a free driver that ndiswrapper can use, I > would say that it belongs in contrib. I heard (on IRC) that someone wrote some DFSG-free WAD files for Quake -- some sort data set to facilitate a World War II battle simulation. If this fact is validated, the quake packages might be able to be moved to main. This is definitely something that can happen if the Free WAD(s) are packaged, and uploaded to main themselves. Anyone know any more about this? -- G. Branden Robinson | You live and learn. Debian GNU/Linux | Or you don't live long. branden@debian.org | -- Robert Heinlein http://people.debian.org/~branden/ |
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature