Le 04/06/2015 01:18, John Morris a écrit :
> On Wed, 2015-06-03 at 12:45 +0100, KatolaZ wrote:
>> >On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 08:37:22PM +1200, Daniel Reurich wrote:
>>> > >
>>> > >I'd like a straw poll on whether we should include non-free firmware
>>> > >in our installers by default.
>>> > >
>> >My two cents on this point: I would really prefer*not* having any
>> >non-free software/firmware in the default Devuan install.
> I have a position that appears out of the mainstream here but afraid I
> have to say that Fedora has the right policy on this issue. Non-free
> software: NO, Firmware: YES. So ixnay on things like the Nvidia drivers
> but yes on blobs. The reasoning on where to draw the line is pretty
> clear cut. If it comes down to the vendor shaving ten cents to save a
> serial eeprom, put the danged blob on the install media if the vendor
> allows unlimited redistribution. Doubly so for the blobs required to
> get connected to the network in the first place. But a closed driver
> polluting the kernel is right out. And no fair putting the non-free
> repo a single click away, they force all of the problem packages out to
> rpmfusion and do not even permit discussion of its existence on any
> official fora.
>
> Debian always has seemed to get this exactly wrong, creating pointless
> annoyance for the users while selling out the free software principles
> they yell so loudly about. They pretend to be RMS pure but make the
> non-free repos with all of the unfree crap a single install option away;
> but won't include the blobs on the install media to make that option
> meaningful if your problematic hardware is the network adapter. So in
> the end it makes Nvidia video, Adobe Flash and other horrid closed
> abominations easy to install and keep updated but a firmware blob that
> runs entirely outside of the CPU's address space stops install cold.
>
That's also my position. Those firmware blobs are going to explode
in number because all the logic which was done in hardware 10 years ago
is now made of an FPGA and a firmware. This is the place were "hardware"
manufacturers put their work. Considering these as software is going too
far and will fail. I know there may be a privacy issue, but it would be
the same if they put the blob in an eprom which didn't require the
kernel to be loaded - the difference between the two is that you pay
more to not see that there is a firmware.
Didier
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Re: [Dng] straw poll, non-free firm…
