"Marco d'Itri" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>On Fri, Oct 29, 2004 at 11:07:14AM +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote: >>> >Hardware is not part of Debian, and the fact that Debian depends on >>> >non-free pieces of hardware has never been considered to violate any of >>> >the above. (And, as I've said a few times, stuff tucked away in an >>> >EPROM acts like part of the hardware.) >>> And every time you failed to explain why software magically is not >>> software anymore when stored on a flash EPROM. >>By that logic, the same piece of data stored on an involatile ROM (that >>the driver can't upload at all) is also to be considered software. It's >>non-free and we require it--I guess we should just give up! > Yes, sure! If some stream of bits is considered software when stored in > RAM then I can't see why it should not be software anymore when stored > in some other media. I have not seen any convincing argument about why > software should lose its nature if stored in ROM. > If the conseguences of this are that some interpretations of the policy > or social contract are inconsistent then maybe you should start > considering that they may really be, after all.
How about when they're stored on paper? How about when they're burned into a different sort of persistent chip, like an FPGA? How about CAD/CAM instructions, once embodied in a manufactured device? Is my coffee mug still software? >>Looks like hardware, acts like hardware. > To me, it looks like software stored in hardware. > >>Of course, it's a boundary case--it's neither strictly hardware nor software. > Really? I think it's quite clear. That's because you're not thinking about all the ramifications. >>That's where the word "firmware" comes from in the first place, and that's >>why there's disagreement on it--for things which are unambiguously hardware >>(my printer) and things which are unambiguously software (/bin/ls), we >>have clear boundaries, but for things which are neither hardware nor >>software and yet both at the same time, things aren't so clear. > I'm sorry, but the policy revisionists forced Debian to think that there > is only software and they have been very clear about this. No, actually. I was an active participant in those debates here, and you're completely misrepresenting both the wording and intention of those revisions. -Brian -- Brian Sniffen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
