Le jeudi 30 octobre 2008 à 16:03 -0400, Lennart Sorensen a écrit : > > Again: ARE you realy willing to pay at least > > 10US$ or 8? more for the hardware? > > Absolutely. I know I may be a minority, but I do pay extra to buy high > quality hardware rather than the cheapest crap I can find. On the other > hand I am much happier with my stuff because it works better, lasts > longer, and doesn't waste my time dealing with @#$#$ firmware files.
Your assertion that it is better to put firmware in a flash ROM rather than in the driver, including for software freedom, is utterly wrong. All software has bugs and firmware is no exception. And when time comes to update the firmware in a flash ROM, like in those crappy Smart Array controllers, what will you do? Not only will the update not be available with regular system upgrades, but you will have to install non-free software provided by the manufacturer to update the ROM, and execute it *on the host system*, with all the security implications. Distributing the non-free firmware with regular package updates in non-free ensures that you are able to update it for bug fixes with system upgrades, and this is a definite improvement for users. And it also ensures that the only thing that is done with this non-free firmware is to upload it to the dedicated chip, which is an improvement for both users and software freedom. But the most important thing is that it gives leverage to convince manufacturers to actually distribute the firmware with a free license. We may have to put some firmware images in non-free, but we now have also a lot of them in main with permission to modify them, and some of them are even distributed with the source. The net result is that manufacturers are actually starting to open up their hardware. If you want to avoid that and keep your hardware bugs, go ahead and buy this hardware with flash ROMs. Cheers, -- .''`. : :' : We are debian.org. Lower your prices, surrender your code. `. `' We will add your hardware and software distinctiveness to `- our own. Resistance is futile.
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