Fedora Freedom and linux-libre

[Andrew Haley]

Bill Crawford wrote:
> 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)

Sure, but my argument was not about firmware that we need, it was
about firmware that we don't need.

> 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)

But this is a complete non sequitur as a reply to my argument,
which was about *unnecessary* firmware updates.  I can understand
why you say this, but I can't understand why you think it is an
appropriate reply to what _I_ said.

> 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*

Well, consider the alternative: every time a hardware manufacturer
throws a random binary over the wall and asks us to put it into
our kernel, we salute and say "Yes, sir!"

Andrew.