Romain d'Alverny a écrit :
On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 20:08, Anssi Hannula<anssi.hann...@iki.fi> wrote:
On 24.03.2011 19:35, Romain d'Alverny wrote:
Summary (from http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=licensing_policy):
* core: stuff that is not Free/Open Source according to OSI/FSF does
not belong here. Not even closed-source stuff that we can
redistribute. So if there is at this time, that's something to fix.
Most of files in kernel-firmware (which is in core) are not OSI/FSF free
(approximate list from 2010 [1]). There was a short thread about that
[2] where I asked the question if they should be moved to non-free due
to them not being OSI/FSF free, and tmb agreed, while pterjan disagreed
(saying BSD without source code (where a portion of the firmware files
in question fall) is eligible for core).
[1] http://lists.mandriva.com/cooker/2010-01/msg00525.php
[2] https://mageia.org/pipermail/mageia-dev/20110115/002172.html
Ah right, sorry for overlooking this.
So what do we do? amend core inclusion definition for that? or move
these to nonfree? (and at what cost?) topic for next Council meeting
to decide? would you like to write a summary for this in
http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=meeting:council_notes_2011_03_28#open_questions
?
Romain
fwiw, I think the best solution is to have an express policy to include
such firmware in core.
Without it, much hardware simply won't work. Firmware/drivers are
essentially extensions to hardware, so that software can work with them.
The hardware is changed, and firmware/drivers have to be changed to
accommodate the hardware.
These firmware/drivers provide an interface which allows (free) software
to run.
A practical solution, which doesn't hurt free software.
The alternative is (free) software that doesn't run properly.
my 2 cents :)
--
André
