Debian goes to the polls

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.