On Lu, 03 mar 14, 13:56:45, Bret Busby wrote: > > Apart from the systemd fight stuff, I am wondering, in the context > of the above message content, why a spearate firmware distribution > of Debian Linux, needs to exist, rather than the firmware being > included in the offical Debian version.
http://www.debian.org/social_contract Important are specifically point 1. (of course) and DFSG 2., since for most firmware the source is not available. > Also, and I do not know how applicable this is, to what is > happening, I wonder why Debian does not provide backward > compatibility with previous versions of Debian; why provision is not > made, to allow software that runs on Debian 5, to run on Debian 6 > and Debian 7. Because this quickly becomes a maintenance nightmare. This is just my rough understanding, but I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong: 1. freeze the "base" system (system libraries and so) This is what Microsoft has been doing with XP. This seamed to work well for a while, except that at some point, no matter how many Service Packs they applied to it, the OS was simply not be able to cope with the changes around it. Eventually software programmers will want to use new features of their languages and libraries, but over time this becomes increasingly difficult and even impossible. And let's not forget about deep (possible security related) bugs in the underlying system that just can't be fixed by simple patches that don't affect the applications on top. 2. Keep multiple versions of libraries around Debian does that to some extent, but (depending on the library and how the upstream developers handle changes to it) it quickly becomes too difficult to maintain. The amount of maintenance work needed is likely to increase geometrically or even exponentially with the number of concurrent versions, and don't forget that the maintainer most likely already has 3 (three) versions to care about: oldstable, stable and testing/sid. 3. Extend the support times for a release This is not really a solution, because at some point you will just end up with 1., but if you're "lucky" this will give the developers of the old software to migrate to the newer libraries, or the need will just go away (as per your example below, the hardware gets replaced). > As a single example, I have a multifunction printer, of which, the > multifunctionality worked with Debian 5. Now, it is only a laser > printer, running with Debian 6 - to use it to scan, I have to scan > to a USB drive, and then copy the files to the computer, as Debian 6 > (and, I believe, similarly, Debian 7) does not provide for the > device to wotk with it, other than using a printer driver that is > not for the particular model range, and, losing all other interfaced > functionality. Based on this I'm guessing the MFP needs proprietary closed source software provided by the manufacturer, but not updated for current Linux releases. Of course, the manufacturer wants you to buy new hardware, not keep using the old one, even if it still suits your needs. Given enough cooperation by the manufacturer you would be using your printer with current software. Worst case you could hire someone to do it for you. I strongly advise that on your next buy (not necessarily MFPs) you also consider how well that device is supported with Linux. Bonus if the manufacturer contributes to that support. If enough of us are doing the same it might eventually open the eyes of manufacturers towards the benefits of FLOSS, etc. > Surely, it must be possible, to provide backward compatibility, to > allow software that ran on earlier versions of Debian, to run on a > current stable version? A chroot might be possible, but please start a new thread for this problem. Beware of the XY problem[1], i.e. I believe the correct question in your case is: How can I use the scan capabilities of device foo with recent Debian? [1] http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=542341 > "So once you do know what the question actually is, > you'll know what the answer means." > - Deep Thought, > Chapter 28 of Book 1 of > "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: > A Trilogy In Four Parts", > written by Douglas Adams, > published by Pan Books, 1992 Could you please reduce the number of lines in your .sig? Up to 4 lines would be nice. You could strip the chapter and book number as well as the publisher, these are not really useful/necessary. Besides, you can go for (slightly) longer lines, like e.g. 72 characters or so. Kind regards, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic http://nuvreauspam.ro/gpg-transition.txt
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