Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote: > Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes: >>There are drivers we ship that require you to have a specific version of >>the firmware in eeprom. In at least one case, it's not possible to >>provide this without the user returning the card so that extra flash can >>be attached. Would you class this as dongleware or acceptable behaviour? > > I don't think dongleware like that is free -- if I could remove the > dongle and the software which checks for it and still have the same > functionality, then it's free. > > I think that requiring a hardware upgrade to support behavior is > irrelevant to free software. Firmware that's part of the hardware is > part of the hardware. Firmware that looks like software is software. > If Debian *could* ship it, it's software. Stuff requiring > 3d-acceleration, or the -686 kernels, are all free. That precisely sums up my position as well. Thanks for the concise description. - Josh Triplett
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