Am Montag 18 Juni 2007 02:56 schrieb Alexandre Oliva: > > Anyhow, AFAIK software in ROM is not non-Free Software. That it's > impossible to modify/replace/whathaveyou it is not the result of a > restriction that someone is imposing on you. > > It's the difference between "you can't fly because you don't have > wings" and "you won't fly because I've tied your wings". With tied > wings, you're evidently not free to fly any more. But if the problem > is that you don't have wings, if you're free and sufficiently > creative, you may be able to invent baloons, airplanes, rockets et al > and overcome the barriers that nature poses for you. >
So, if a manufacturer used a ROM instead of a flash memory with the intention to make software modifications impossible, then it is bad, and when he did it for economical reasons, then it is a "natural barrier"? Your tied-up-wings comparison is simply not valid. Or, more precisely, you will usually not be able to tell whether you don't have wings or if they're tied. Hardware design decisions of a manufacturer should never be the subject of a software license. Hans - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
