On Sun, Oct 24, 2004 at 03:41:13AM +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote: > Mike Hommey <mh@glandium.org> wrote: > > The point is, some drivers DO require firmwares. I'd rather say: Some > > depend on firmware. In that case, if the firmware is non-free, the > > driver can't go in main. > Is this the case even if the firmware is in a flash chip attached to the > device? If the total amount of non-free software on a user's system is > the same regardless, why are we concerned about how it's packaged? The total amount of non-free software on a user's system is different if the firmware comes pre-loaded on the device than if we have to load it from the OS, isn't it? If there is at least one real-world device that works with the driver without needing to load additional firmware, I think the driver is unambiguously free from this standpoint. If no one can point to a device that the driver works with without the help of an additional non-free firmware blob, I'm not certain I agree that it doesn't have a dependency on non-free software. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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