On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 3:33 PM, mark sullivan <mark.sulli...@gmx.fr> wrote:
> I would like to hear your arguments on this and if there is a simple way > to disable fw_update and uninstall in general everything propietary > affecting the network card that I have not been warned about. I read on the > FAQ that I should have been asked about this firmware but I wasnB4t! (amd64 > cd installer). > are you confusing "proprietary" with "third-party"? the firmware you're concerned about is provided by the card's manufacturer (or the chipset manufacturer) and the card (or chip) won't work without it. the reason OpenBSD needs to download it is because the manufacturer won't allow OpenBSD to include it on the CD. if you don't download it, the device won't work -- if the device could work effectively without it, OpenBSD would not go to the trouble of downloading it to begin with. this is not the same thing as third-party firmware which replaces the manufacturer's firmware. examples of this kind of thing are OpenWRT and Tomato firmware which replace the factory firmware on certain consumer-grade routers. -ken
