[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >If there is a vote, I will vote AGAINST granting a special >exception to firmware, or considering firmware as data. Manoj's >arguments are compelling IMHO. In addition, the proposed GR makes no >mention of blobs, which are binary-only pieces of software that execute >*in kernel space*, *on the central processing unit*. Linux contains >a few blobs. I would therefore: No, "blobs" are opaque streams of bytes which are uploaded to some device and never executed by the system CPU. You are talking about non-free object files to be linked with the rest of the kernel code, and the Linux kernel does not contain any. Please get a clue.
>The proposed GR mentions that some firmware requires non-free tools in >order to create it from source code. Just because no free tools exist >*now* does not imply that no free tools will *ever* exist; and just >because some vendor tries to lock people in with non-free firmware does >not mean we should accept to be locked in. We *are* "locked in" no matter if we distribute sourceless firmwares or not since everybody will always end up using some. > I think we should learn from >OpenBSD on this front. I agree. Indeed, the OpenBSD project not only distributes sourceless firmwares, but also sourceless firmwares with a license which forbids modifications and reverse engineering. -- ciao, Marco -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
