Fedora not "free" enough for GNU?
Alan Cox
alan at redhat.com
Fri Sep 19 15:00:17 UTC 2008
> 2) Intellectual "Property" issues
>
> Hardware vendors don't want other hardware vendors to know how they run
> their hardware so that their design can't be copied or stolen.
Sounds like Microsoft about operating systems - not a good free software
reason at all.
> 3) Inability to build
>
> Firmware is usually code for some PLD or ASIC, which needs specialized
> (and EXPENSIVE) compilers to build. Most people are unlikely to be able
> to turn the source into the firmware.
So.. most people can't work a compiler but they can still benefit from the
fact there are people who can and do have the tools and use them.
A lot of fancier embedded device firmware is ARM, MIPS or some microcontroller
if you stuff it through a few disassemblers. Most CD/DVD firmware for example
is ARM.
Alan
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