On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 11:50:44AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell BSG wrote: > Brian Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > It's a completely inconsistent and arbitrary policy. > > It's hardly that. We distribute only free software, that's our rule. > The rest, as you say, is for the manufacturer and the user to work > out, but we disvalue non-free software, and so we don't distribute it > in main. (And packages which require it go into contrib.)
The device drivers in question *are* 100% free software! You say they should go into contrib because they depend on non-free software. However, *all* device drivers depend on non-free software. Why does it matter if that non-free stuff is stored on the device itself or is loaded externally? > You only see it as inconsistent because you think the relevant > consideration is "do we support this hardware", and you don't care how > we support it. I didn't say that. I'm saying we should distribute all free device drivers in main because they are free. Binary blobs are a non-issue. > Most of us *do* care; we support it provided we can do > so without distributing non-free software, because Debian is 100% Free > Software. Things we cannot support with free software we do not > support. This is not an inconsistent policy; this is the core of what > Debian stands for. All hardware depends on non-free software. If you want to lobby for all hardware to be free, including the firmware/BIOS/whatever, then fine. That's a noble war to wage and I'd support your efforts. However, requiring a policy like this at this time is completely insane because no hardware exists that meets this requirement. > To say it is arbitrary is worse, because that insults the motives of > the people who disagree with you. Your motives baffle me, and I can't say I feel any shame in insulting them. -- For every sprinkle I find, I shall kill you!
