Debian removed binary blob drivers

Debian removed binary blob drivers

Posted Sep 3, 2004 2:00 UTC (Fri) by bignose (subscriber, #40)
In reply to: Debian removed binary blob drivers by bronson
Parent article: Pointless ideology?

> Do these debian guys also disable the boot ROMs on their network and video
> cards? Do they unplug the BIOS chip from their motherboards?

That's outside the realm of what Debian distributes. Debian doesn't distribute any non-free boot ROMs (because they don't distribute boot ROMs). Debian doesn't distribute non-free BIOS (because they don't distribute any BIOS).

If free boot ROMs, or BIOS code, becomes available and useful to Debian users, Debian might start distributing those too.

> There is absolutely no [software-freedom] difference between a
> closed-source firmware blob loaded over an I2C bus (say, a serial EEPROM)
> and a closed-source firmware blob loaded over the PCI bus. None at all.

That's right. Which is why Debian doesn't distribute any of them.

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