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

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Mar 24, 2008, Bill Nottingham <notting at redhat.com> wrote:

> Alexandre Oliva (aoliva at redhat.com) said: 
>> > Are you asking for a separate kernel-libre component be made part of the
>> > fedora repository?
>> 
>> Yep.  The idea is to have a kernel that people could use to create
>> 100% Free spins of Fedora, while still calling it Fedora.

> Then please work upstream (with linux-kernel, and the Fedora kernel
> maintainers) to pull the firmware into 'standard' packages that use
> the firmware loader

Why should I work to promote this non-Free firmware and devices that
require it in the first place, if my goal is precisely to work against
the deprivation of freedoms over software?  It would be nonsensical
for me to prioritize this.  Please don't suggest me to work against my
personal goals, that's just silly.

Now, once that package is in, it will take effort to maintain, and
then I can split firmware out of the kernel because this would make it
easier to maintain the Free kernel.  But I won't be doing this just
because it's becomes easier to manage the non-Free firmware, but
rather because it becomes easier to manage the Free Software.

Non-Free Software, be it firmware or not, is offensive and immoral.  I
have no intent whatsoever of encouraging people to use it.  And if
Fedora is serious about its stated goals, it should take this stance
as well.


Promoting non-Free codecs were another facet of the same problem, and
I'm happy to see that go away, and that many people realized the
mistake it was.

I'm not holding my breath for people to realize endorsing and
promoting non-Free firmware are sufficiently similar to deserve the
same solution but, unlike the non-Free codecs, that were optional and
not distributed by Fedora proper, the non-Free firmware included in
the Fedora kernel are unavoidable and are distributed by Fedora, so
I'm working to at least offer people an option to avoid them without
having to ditch Fedora.

Of course, whether Fedora wants that or not is not up to me.  I'm
going to maintain these kernels one way or another.  I didn't foresee
any opposition to something that's so clearly in line with Fedora's
goals, and that would cost very little to everyone else.  But if there
is opposition, or if there are demands for me to do things in a way
that are against my personal goals, that's fine, I can live with that.
We're all free to choose what to do, right?

-- 
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}