tor, 03.03.2005 kl. 05.56 skrev Eric Warnke: > I know this will open a large can of worms, so please take this message > as mearly a way of opening a dialog on the subject. > > Objecive 2 of the Fedora "contract" specifies that it should be built > exclusivly from open source software. > > But is firmware software? It is more like a document, image, or other > fixed item. What about Creative Commons "by" and "by-nd" licensed > documentation are those items locked out of Fedora as well? > > I think we should re-evaluate the belief that locking out "free as in > beer" firmware ( and all firmware is only "free as in beer" unless they > provide the source ) is the proper action for the community when these > files enable open source operating systems to interact with otherwise > propratary hardware. I think that the first objective of the "contract" > is to provide a general operating system platform equivilant to other > competing systems must be evaluated before locking these files out. To > say that these types of firmware are no longer welcome I think will hurt > us long term as the hardware get smarter and more flexable. > Communications hardware especially that are generally bound by one or > more legal body to constrain it's abilities. Hardware manufactures who > open their hardware to blanket hacking risk loosing the license to sell > the hardware, so don't expect them to open the firmware as that is > legally not an option for them. > > Is this lock out based on ideology or reality. Including "free as in > beer" firmware does not compromise the ability to redistribute Fedora > freely and I think it moves us closer to the goal of a genreal-purpose > operating system out of the box. It improves user feedback and reduces > problamatic and frustrating installs for both users and the people that > are drawn in to help new users get past these repetitive and common > problems. > > Cheers, > Eric IMO firmware is just a part of the hardware. It's not something running on the main CPU etc. Besides, the chances to get it opened, are probably really small
