On Monday 02 Jun 2008, Praveen A wrote: > 2008/6/2 Raj Mathur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Some people (including me) are neutral to code that doesn't run on > > their primary processor. For instance, I'd complain if you gave me > > a non-free driver for my WiFi card, but I wouldn't if you gave me a > > free driver that downloads a binary blob to the card itself. The > > blob isn't running on my CPU, so I'm less antagonistic to it being > > non-free. > > But, doesn't you own both the CPUs? It is like saying you cannot > break my leg, but it is OK to break my finger. > > Also the owner still keeps the right to modify the code where as the > user is left in the dark, isn't that the whole of the issue? Where is > runs is just a matter of technical design. > > When the owner of the code has the ability to control code and the > user is left at mercy of the owner the issue of Freedom comes.
Well, yes and no. By that token you also have to condemn firmware that sits permanently on the card (in ROM), in addition to what we are discussing: firmware that gets downloaded to the card at init time. In my personal opinion, card firmware (whether on-board or downloaded) is less of an issue than the software that your computer is running. Yes, it'd be nice to have completely open source cards, but I'm not losing any sleep over it right now. As long as the card manufacturers open their interface specs so the FOSS folks can write quality drivers, I don't care what the card does -- it's a black box and can remain so. Regards, -- Raju -- Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Next Event: http://freed.in - February 22-24, 2008 Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
