kernel-libre (hopefully 100% Free) for Fedora 8 and rawhide

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Mar 23, 2008, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Alexandre Oliva wrote:
>> 
>> It's a matter of not supporting the
>> distribution of non-Free Software, no matter how hidden it is, or how
>> important it is for some.

> What is the issue with firmware?  Isn't it typically an update or
> variation of what is already embedded in the corresponding hardware
> anyway?

No, as of lately, quite often there isn't anything embedded in the
corresponding hardware.

The difference is that, when the firmware is embedded in the
controller, you can pretty much ignore it, and you got it from the
vendor anyway.

But as firmware moves out of devices, because their vendors are too
cheap to add non-volatile memory, and prefer to provide them
separately and count on operating system distributors to help them
keep users helpless, why should we help them do it, and increase their
profit margins while at that?

> That is, you don't have a choice of free vs. non-free, just working
> or not working.

The first choice is purchase and feed the monster, or purchase
something else.

Once you got it and you can't return it, you're stuck with it.  At
that point, it is indeed a matter of choice between keeping your
freedom or sacrificing it for convenience.

ATM, Fedora doesn't give users this choice.  Fedora forces people to
choose between Fedora and freedom.  I'd like to add an option for
people to run Fedora in freedom.

If Fedora doesn't want it, or imposes impossible requirements, that's
fine.  I'll keep on doing it myself, and then I'll have to name the
distro something else.  That would be unfortunate, but GNUhura (my
plan B, in case Fedora doesn't take it) isn't a bad name at all :-)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
FSF Latin America Board Member         http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}
Free Software Evangelist  oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}