Infinite Freedom???

[Rahul Sundaram]

Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> 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.

See http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html#FreeGNULinuxDistributions. All 
the distributions except maybe gNewSense (I asked for more information 
but didn't get any detailed response) have such firmware in them.

> 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.

They have already been informed personally by me on several occasions 
and they haven't fixed it. You might want to do some cross checking 
yourself before making claims.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FreeSoftwareAnalysis


> 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.

The in-kernel firmware? It's not a easy process. See Fedora Advisory 
Board list archives for details.

Rahul