On Du, 16 ian 11, 22:55:13, Andrew McGlashan wrote: > > What I mean is, the kernel changes to add broadcom and other > firmware ... will those parts be non-free or will they remain as > extras required as they are now. > > I did an install using squeeze rc1 and without using media with > non-free firmware, it would have been more difficult. > > If the broadcom and other extras coming in 2.6.37 are non-free > additions, then that would be fantastic; if they aren't well, it > would be a pity.
I still don't understand exactly what you mean, but maybe this helps: Debian is only the stuff in "main", everything else (like "contrib" and "non-free") is provided only as a service to the users. See point 4 and 5 of the Social Contract (one of the links in my previous mail). The Linux kernel used to be the big exception since it contained non-free firmware, but was still distributed in "main". This has changed now for squeeze. To the best knowledge of the developers, all non-free firmware has been split out in firmware-linux-nonfree and is available only from the "non-free" archive. AFAIK this was possible also due to the help from upstream (the kernel developers), where firmware has been split from the drivers. Considering all of the above, I doubt non-free firmware will ever be distributed in "main" again, unless by mistake (bugs can happen). In case you need the non-free firmware during the installation there are special non-free CD images containing the firmware or you can build you own USB stick with all needed stuff. Hope this explains, Andrei -- Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic
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