Wireless in FC4

[Rodd Clarkson]

On Wed, 2005-03-09 at 09:37 -0600, Gregory G Carter wrote:
> Just to chime in here, I think firmware should be kept out of the 
> kernel, unless it is GPL'ed.
> 
> That is I shuld be able to use a freely available cross compiler such as 
> the gcc tool chain and generate the binary for the hardware.

Oh, don't get me wrong here.  I'm not arguing in the least that the
firmware should become part of the kernel.  I've got no problem with
keeping it separate at all.

What I want to know is why it can't be distributed at part of fedora,
presumably as a separate package that is installed where it needs to be
installed.

I'm rapidly forming the opinion that firmware isn't software and that as
such has no place in the software chain.  It's a fine line of
distinction, but as someone asked, are we going to stop supporting
hardware that have firmware upgrades on their chipset because the
firmware isn't 'open'?  And if not, what's the difference between
hardware where the firmware is stored on a chipset and hardware where
the firmware is stored on the hard-disk?


Rodd