Intel Pro Wireless cards
Kyrre Ness Sjobak
kyrre at solution-forge.net
Thu Mar 3 21:48:54 UTC 2005
tor, 03.03.2005 kl. 05.56 skrev Eric Warnke:
> I know this will open a large can of worms, so please take this message
> as mearly a way of opening a dialog on the subject.
>
> Objecive 2 of the Fedora "contract" specifies that it should be built
> exclusivly from open source software.
>
> But is firmware software? It is more like a document, image, or other
> fixed item. What about Creative Commons "by" and "by-nd" licensed
> documentation are those items locked out of Fedora as well?
>
> I think we should re-evaluate the belief that locking out "free as in
> beer" firmware ( and all firmware is only "free as in beer" unless they
> provide the source ) is the proper action for the community when these
> files enable open source operating systems to interact with otherwise
> propratary hardware. I think that the first objective of the "contract"
> is to provide a general operating system platform equivilant to other
> competing systems must be evaluated before locking these files out. To
> say that these types of firmware are no longer welcome I think will hurt
> us long term as the hardware get smarter and more flexable.
> Communications hardware especially that are generally bound by one or
> more legal body to constrain it's abilities. Hardware manufactures who
> open their hardware to blanket hacking risk loosing the license to sell
> the hardware, so don't expect them to open the firmware as that is
> legally not an option for them.
>
> Is this lock out based on ideology or reality. Including "free as in
> beer" firmware does not compromise the ability to redistribute Fedora
> freely and I think it moves us closer to the goal of a genreal-purpose
> operating system out of the box. It improves user feedback and reduces
> problamatic and frustrating installs for both users and the people that
> are drawn in to help new users get past these repetitive and common
> problems.
>
> Cheers,
> Eric
IMO firmware is just a part of the hardware. It's not something running
on the main CPU etc.
Besides, the chances to get it opened, are probably really small
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