Matthew Garrett wrote: > Bernhard R. Link <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> We are giving a promise here, that with the stuff in our distribution >> you have the freedom to use it, to give it to others and to fix it. >> This means the missing of legal obstacles and the possibility to do so. >> For this discussion "preferred form of modification" is perhaps not the >> best definition. It's good for licenses as it is not easily to work >> around. I think here the difference is between the source being in >> a form practical to edit or not. Without a practical form there is >> no possibility to change it. And this is a limitation we have to >> make clear to people and not lock them into by claiming all is good >> and well and it could be part of our free operating system. > > We never included non-free applications in main because we felt that > there was no need to. And, indeed, even in 1993 it was possible to use a > computer without any non-free applications. > > That doesn't hold with the firmware argument. With applications, we had > the choice between "Free but less functional" and "Non-free but more > functional". With firmware we have the choice between "Non-free but on > disk" and "Non-free but in ROM". There isn't a "Free" option at all yet.
Except for those cases where there is, such as adaptec, ser_a2232, ixp2000, wanxlfw, atmel, 53c700, 53c7xx, aic7xxx, sym53c8xx_2, and keyspan_pda. Yes, that includes a very common SCSI card and a very common NIC. > So I think the real question is "How does us refusing to ship non-free > firmware help free software?". WE'RE NOT CONSIDERING DOING THAT. I hate to shout, but *have* you heard of non-free? It was mentioned in the post you're replying to! ....well, we are considering doing it in the cases where the firmware is *improperly licensed*. There, the benefit is (a) not getting sued and protecting downstream from liability, (b) clearly respecting copyright holders and respecting their stated desires. -- Nathanael Nerode <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Bush admitted to violating FISA and said he was proud of it. So why isn't he in prison yet?... -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]