Infinite Freedom???

Gregory Maxwell gmaxwell at gmail.com
Tue Jun 19 03:07:18 UTC 2007


On 6/18/07, Rahul Sundaram <sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#head-adf31c383612aac313719f7b4f8167b7dcf245d2
>
> FSF position on this seems to be rather inconsistent to me since they
> have endorsed certain distributions as Free even if they include such
> firmware in the kernel inherited from upstream.

They have? Where?

As far as I know the only GNU/Linux distribution currently endorsed by
the FSF is gNewSense.  gNewSense ships a patched kernel which removes
all the blobs.

If you are aware of anything in gNewSense which isn't consistent with
the position that user loadable firmware needs to be free, please let
them know.. I'm sure they will be glad to fix it.

I think it is past due for Fedora to take at least a half-step and
segregate the non-free firmware into separate packages which can be
excluded at install time.

Doing so will not win Fedora any credit from the FSF, but it will do
nothing to harm the standing hardware compatibility and it will enable
those who care and who want to avoid that hardware to do so.

Increasing awareness is good for everyone.

Really, I think it's quite unfortunate that the 'most free'/FSF
approved' distro is based on Ubuntu... a distribution which hasn't a
fraction of Fedora's commitment to freedom. .. but it is what it is.




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