Debian goes to the polls [LWN.net]

Debian goes to the polls

Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:31 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179)
In reply to: Debian goes to the polls by qg6te2
Parent article: Debian goes to the polls

I have always wondered about that. Note that the "firmware" source could even be in VHDL! Freedom or not, at this stage it is completely unrealistic to expect to be able to compile that entirely with free tools and upload it into commercial FPGAs.

In my mind the answer is clear: Nobody expects or requires open source design schematics for the hardware supported by the kernel, so it doesn't make sense to require it for the firmware either. The manner of distribution of the firmware is just a detail. Even if a binary firmware blob is linked into the kernel, it doesn't actually take away the users freedoms.

That said, I would rather have Debian reach any solution and move on, rather than waste time in flames.

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Debian goes to the polls

Posted Dec 18, 2008 2:49 UTC (Thu) by clint (subscriber, #7076) [Link]

Another detail is that Debian doesn't distribute hardware. If it did, one might presume that that hardware must be free as well.

Debian firmware blobs

Posted Dec 19, 2008 21:40 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

Nobody expects or requires open source design schematics for the hardware supported by the kernel, so it doesn't make sense to require it for the firmware either.
Another detail is that Debian doesn't distribute hardware. If it did, one might presume that that hardware must be free as well.

Right. Explaining further: Nobody suggests DFSG requires Debian to ensure source code is available for firmware in devices Debian uses. They suggest that Debian cannot distribute a binary firmware blob unless source code is available for that blob.

So the equivalent statement for design schematics is that Debian can't distribute a device if its schematics are not available.

I don't understand how people distinguish firmware blobs from, say, a binary only Linux device driver for DFSG purposes. All the arguments I see in favor of shipping Debian with the blobs are really just arguments against DFSG.