Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

[Bill Crawford]

2008/6/18 Andrew Haley <aph at redhat.com>:


> Really?  We don't need this firmware?  Are you sure about that?

We do need it, which was what I was getting at :o) this fuss is ...
well, shipping replacements for those firmwares is IMO subtly
different to shipping a binary driver to run on the cpu. There *is* an
argument that for perfect security (or at least peace of mind) we
should consider these a potential source of danger (bugs in firmware
might mean random DMA-ing of your crypto keys into a network packet,
etc etc but the real risk is likely zero).

>> Yes. Which is why we should stop supporting these "PCs" which aren't
>> completely free.
>
> I don't understand what you're saying here.  Are you saying that we
> should stop supporting any PC that contains any firmware that isn't
> free?  That seems rather extreme.

I was joking :o)

If we're content with on-board firmware, what's the harm in shipping
replacement firmware to put on those devices when we boot? *shrug*

> Andrew.