I'm not sure I can take the Debian kernel team seriously any more. http://wiki.debian.org/KernelFirmwareLicensing states, in part: >Debian kernel team identifies the following three types of firmware, currently >found in the Linux kernel: > >1. Sourceless binary blobs with no license, no explicit permission to >redistribute, or > an explicit prohibition to redistribute. > > This category currently includes the dabusb, dgrs, emi62, keyspan, smctr, > cops, emi26, and 3c359 drivers. Removal of these drivers will have minimal > impact on the users, as they are believed to be unpopular and not likely to > be required during the installation. .... >It has been agreed within Debian kernel team, that the firmware in category 1 >is not acceptable in Debian. It is the intention of the kernel team to prune >the >affected drivers from the upstream tarball.
The most recent linux-source-2.6.22 contains the following files: drivers/media/video/dabfirmware.h drivers/net/drgs_firmware.c drivers/usb/misc/emi26_fw.h drivers/usb/misc/emi62_fw_m.h drivers/usb/misc/emi62_fw_s.h drivers/usb/serial/keyspan_mpr_fw.h drivers/usb/serial/keyspan_usa*_fw.h (11 files) drivers/net/tokenring/smctr_firmware.h drivers/net/appletalk/cops_ltdrv.h drivers/net/appletalk/cops_ffdrv.h drivers/net/tokenring/3c359_microcode.h In other words, *all* of the above drivers. It's even worse than that. Look at the information about drgs: >may 20: > >> Dear Andres: >> >> After further research, we found that this product was killed in place >> and never reached the market. We would like to request that this not be >> included. > >There will be no users impacted by pulling support. > > -dil Non-free material is being included in main for the benefit of *precisely zero* users. There's no two ways about this: this is a Social Contract violation. Coming back to looking at Debian after being preoccupied by family business, I see that the kernel team is not even seriously trying to separate out any non-free material. There have been severe regressions from sarge and no attempt is being made to fix them. I guess the Social Contract really is a joke. I don't know why new applicants are supposed to agree to it. Old members apparently violate it at will for years with no consequences. It doesn't make me respect Debian very much. -- Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Read it and weep. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
