DUG

[Marc Wiriadisastra]

On Fri, 2007-12-28 at 19:09 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> Marc Wiriadisastra wrote:
> > On Fri, 2007-12-28 at 15:55 +0300, John Babich wrote:
> >> On Dec 28, 2007 6:22 AM, Marc Wiriadisastra <marc at mwiriadi.id.au> wrote:
> >>> <snip>
> >>>
> >>> Just a quick update on the wifi guide and all of that.
> >>> I'm looking to put a list of cards that are supported however
> >>> I don't know which cards are supported.
> >>>
> >>> I've contacted Bill and he replied to contact John Linville
> >>> which I have done but I'm assuming he's out of the
> >>> office/holidays and I'm waiting for that list.  I'm assuming
> >>> next week he'll be back or the week after so I will update that
> >>> page when I get the confirmed information.
> >>>
> >>> The other thing that I'm wondering about is whether we should
> >>> provide a guide on how to use the b43-cutter program?  The cutter
> >>> program is supported but the drivers are proprietary therefore
> >>> in order to provide a guide I would have to point them to the
> >>> proprietary websites.
> >>>
> >> As you may know,. wifi connectivity is getting better, with more
> >> unencumbered wifi drivers. At the same time, there are some
> >> manufacturers, such as Boardcom, who won't release open-sourced
> >> drivers and no one has yet reverse-engineered one.
> >>
> >> There are two ways to use proprietary Windows drivers with Linux:
> >> ndiswrapper and b43-cutter. Both require the use of  encumbered
> >> binaries
> >>
> >> It is no secret that the Fedora Project does not condone the use of
> >> encumbered binaries, as this is against the spirit and practice of
> >> promoting FOSS software and practices. Official Fedora docs should not
> >> contain directions on how to do this. Of course, the tools are there
> >> and there's always the repository-which-must-not-be-named.  This
> >> repository exists because there are countries in the world where the
> >> laws are different. However, Red Hat, incorporated in the US, is
> >> subject to US laws.
> >>
> >> This is both for well-documented legal and practical reasons at
> >> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ForbiddenItems.
> >>
> >> Of course, codeina is another story, even if controversial. It's
> >> already documented at
> >> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Multimedia/Codeina. We may want to link
> >> to this page or incorporate it directly into the DUG.
> >>
> >>> Would love some feedback on that last issue.
> >> You just got it :-)
> >>
> >> Best Regards,
> >>
> >> John Babich
> >> Volunteer, Fedora Project
> >>
> > 
> > No disagreements with what you have said my question relates to the fact
> > that b43-cutter is shipped with Fedora itself.  I would only be pointing
> > out what is already in the readme and what is given with the package
> > itself which Fedora ships.
> > 
> > Thats why I'm confused by the situation since Fedora ships b43-cutter
> > which has as it's sole purpose the steps for installing proprietary or
> > closed source software.
> 
> Firmware, not software and we do have a exception for shipping firmware 
> as long as they are redistributable. As long as the software itself is 
> Free and open source, there is no judging it by what it is going to be 
> used for. Wine for example, falls under the same class.
> 
> Rahul
> 

Does that mean it can be documented or not? Either or doesn't bother me
I would like to know since obviously it's a waste of effort if it can't
be used.

Sorry yes firmware and Fedora isn't shipping the firmware rather the
means of installing the firmware.  Does that mean with installing wine
you couldn't document how to install dvdshrink?

Cheers,

Marc