Re: LCC and blobs

[Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu>]

md@Linux.IT (Marco d'Itri) writes:

> On Dec 20, Brian Thomas Sniffen <bts@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> md@Linux.IT (Marco d'Itri) writes:
>> >> differently depending on the presence of additional software -- the
>> >> kernel, for example, or the firmware.
>> > I'm not doing this either.
>> Great.  Then the driver operates differently depending on the presence
>> of additional software -- it needs a Linux kernel and the firmware.
> But then drivers also "depend" on "additional softwares" stored in
> flash EEPROMs in devices.

That's not software.  That's firmware, at best -- you can look at it
as software, but then you don't get to distribute any drivers.  It is
also internally consistent to think of chips as hardware and
distribute drivers appropriately.  It is never consistent to think of
files on disk as anything but software.

>> Without either of those, it does not operate.  This is a dependency.
> But then ICQ clients "depend" on non-free ICQ servers...

Which might be software or hardware or undistributed or all sorts of
things.

-- 
Brian Sniffen                                       bts@alum.mit.edu