The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out

Posted Dec 28, 2008 17:42 UTC (Sun) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501)
In reply to: The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out by lxoliva
Parent article: The 2.6.28 kernel is out

So this script is essentially a patch (keeps a huge list of files and freaks out if none of them is found).

As of 2.6.27 the kernel tree has a separate subtree for firmwares: firmware/ . So isn't your script reduced to 'rm -rf firmware/'? If not: have those issues been reported in the 2.6.28 cycle?

The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out

Posted Dec 29, 2008 0:14 UTC (Mon) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link] (3 responses)

The problem is not firmware. The problem is non-Free Software, and it's compounded with the fact that it's often disguised as source code, offered under incompatible licenses, and even distributed under the GPL without permission from the copyright holder.

There are some firmwares in the Linux tree that are actually Free Software, and GPL-compatible while at that. Removing them from the Linux tree would pointlessly remove Free Software. Moving it all to a separate tree, with the same structure, would do nothing to separate Free from non-Free, so it wouldn't even alleviate the problem.

The Linux-libre project publishes tarballs and binaries, but we also publish the collection of scripts we use to Free up Linux trees, so you can use them to clean up your own patched trees if you prefer.

The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out

Posted Dec 30, 2008 5:35 UTC (Tue) by Miravlix (guest, #48437) [Link] (2 responses)

All I see is some guy using FUD in order to future his political agenda. Worst part is he prolly isn't even being paid for doing it, but is simple a very upset little person that couldn't accept that others didn't feel like he did, so he has gone to extremes in a desperate attempt to discredit others.

The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out

Posted Jan 2, 2009 3:37 UTC (Fri) by lxoliva (guest, #40702) [Link]

I guess warning people about the dangers of blindly following an irresponsible and unconcerned lead might come off as FUD, indeed. I guess I could have sticked to the issue of respect for users' freedoms (my undisputed political agenda), but it really makes me sick when people raise arguments whose validity they have evidently not assessed as to the issue at hand. I guess for most people it's just easier to follow the lead blindly, hoping things will turn out all right. Hopefully it will.

But you can't count on that unless you keep your freedom, and unfortunately the lead many follow misleads them to give up their freedoms. That's quite disappointing. And it's not like his lack of concern for freedom, his own and that of those who follow him, have never been proven wrong: remember BitKeeper? Sure, now we have git, but wouldn't we have had some such thing earlier if it wasn't for the outrageous licensing terms, that prevented people who followed that lead from working on such tools?

Happy GNU Year!

The 2.6.28-libre kernel is out

Posted Jan 6, 2009 0:24 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Because doing work (and yes, identifying non-free parts of the Linux
kernel and writing a script to zap them *is* work) and giving it away
is 'going to extremes in a desperate attempt to discredit others'.

Right.