[Fedora-packaging] Firmware packaging

[Jon Masters]

Matthias Saou wrote:

> Seems fine to me. Definitely a big win for end users, and not such a
> bad compromise overall, although I'd prefer hardware vendors putting
> firmwares back where they belong... in the hardware... for good, not on
> every driver load ;-p

Actually, logically these folks are doing the right thing.

Having firmware *in* the hardware works when you've got years to design 
the hardware and then have guaranteed sales for years after that. But, 
these days, hardware manufacturers need to make rapid changes and fix 
bugs/add new features after release. Not allowing them to do that is 
like saying "you can never release an update for F7, no matter what 
breaks" - it's not realistic :-)

So, actually, we should be working to make using loadable firmware 
easier - because it's going to become much *much* more common.

Jon.