Re: non-free firmware: driver in main or contrib?
Matthew Garrett <mgarrett@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
> I possibly didn't make that clear. "depend", when used by policy, refers
> to dependencies that are expressed by the package management system. As
> a result, it's possible to argue that a driver doesn't "depend" on the
> firmware that's in a chip on a PCB of the device it drives. But it
> certainly requires it.
To be precise, it requires there to be some compatible thing at the
other end of the wire, and we may suspect that there is no such thing
currently available that works without using some non-free firmware.
Does anyone know if it is possible to obtain an IDE disc drive that
contains no non-free software, or should IDE support be removed from
Debian as soon as possible?
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