James Powell [2015-06-04 02:57]:

> Firmware is part of the kernel in a sense because it is loaded by the
> kernel at boot. It only interacts with the kernel and the kernel modules
> to provide any missing functionality, like a header file does, except
> rather than C code, it's prebuilt binary language code.
>
> It is not technically software because it doesn't act through an API,
> shell interpreter, user interface, or execution medium.

And another point, most devices that do not require loading firmware
from disk _already_ has non-free firmware on-board, in an eprom chip or
similar.
--
Hilsen Harald