Re: Dealing with drivers that need firmware on the filesystem
On Wed, Jan 12, 2005 at 10:33:40AM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote:
>
> > I must confess I do not see it that way. I think of Debian as
> > distriuting softwware that runs on a platform, this platform consists
> > of hardware, and, perhaps, associated software burned into
> > ROM/flash. We do not distribute the hardware, and the user arranges
> > for control to be transferred to Debian on power on.
> >
> > I, thus, draw a line between what runs above this line, and
> > things that run below, that existed before Debian started running.
>
> As you say, there is a line to be drawn, and where that line gets drawn
> is fairly subjective. I'd prefer to draw the line at a point that
> results in consistent provision of freedom - if the availability of free
> firmware is a worthwhile thing, then I think we ought to want it in the
> "firmware in flash" case too. On the other hand, if our users don't need
> free firmware when it's in flash, why do they need it when it's on disk?
That's the question that I see unanswered. Is the first motivation of banning
non-free firmware from main to allow distribution consistent with DFSG
or is it because we want to promote free firmware (if realistic) ?
Peter
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