Proprietary Firmware and the Pursuit of a Free Kernel

[Rahul Sundaram]

Hi

In Fedora 10, there is a kernel-firmware package so you can exclude 
*-firmware in yum.conf if you are concerned about this. The work is 
close to getting completed.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3787736_1

"According to Woodhouse, such solutions are in keeping with the modern 
kernel practice of removing firmware from the kernel. New drivers 
already follow this practice, and old ones are being rewritten to follow 
it in what he calls largely routine "janitorial work to bring drivers up 
to date with how we do things these days."

"There are plenty of technical reasons why it's better to do that," 
Woodhouse says. "It's much easier to change firmware and experiment with 
it, and it avoids taking up unswappable kernel memory for something 
which is only required occasionally."

Rahul