Fedora not "free" enough for GNU?

[Benjamin Kreuter]

On Sunday 07 September 2008 05:15:27 Gregory Maxwell wrote:
>
> The notion that firmware ought to be free isn't absurd:

True, but the notion of non-free firmware is also not absurd, at least if you 
are willing to tolerate hardware makers refusing to publish circuit and logic 
diagrams for their hardware.  It really boils down to a debate on whether or 
not firmware should be considered software, and I personally fall in the camp 
that does not consider firmware to be software, at least firmware in the form 
of FPGA/CPLD configurations.  Additionally, freedom with firmware is a lot 
more restricted than freedom with software:  firmware cannot be "ported" to 
other hardware, modifying firmware requires a lot more expertise than 
modifying software, etc.

I usually agree with the FSF on these matters, but firmware is where I part 
ways with them.

-- Ben



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Message sent on: Sun Sep 7 15:16:04 EDT 2008
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