Matthew Garrett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I think it's reasonable to refuse to ship non-free code when there's > actually a choice or when it's likely to provide an incentive to > implement a free version. But right now, I don't see any evidence that > refusing to ship non-free firmware will do anything other than cost us > users without providing any extra freedom.
The above argument seems to be "If I don't see it, it doesn't matter". Of course, evidence is unlikely to appear before the action is taken. I doubt any corporation will declare "if debian does this, we'll follow the DFSG instead". Instead, we each get to make our best guesses. I think the idea that refusing to ship non-free firmware in main will strengthen demand for free firmware is worthy of consideration. Debian helps users to take control of their operating system. Increasing the demand for free firmware might also help users to take control of their hardware, or at least highlight that there's this crap which their operating system uses to support their hardware but doesn't have its normal freedoms. However, I'm undecided whether it's a good idea to exclude them from the distribution CDs and so on. How big is the problem of vital hardware which won't work without firmware being copied to it? Should we split non-free into non-free-hardware and non-free, allowing non-free-hardware packages onto the CDs? Thanks for any answers, -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ Please follow http://www.uk.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]