[Mageia-dev] Non-free firmwares in installer

Thu Mar 24 22:41:18 CET 2011

Romain d'Alverny a écrit :
+>
+> On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 20:08, Anssi Hannula<anssi.hannula at iki.fi>  wrote:
+>> On 24.03.2011 19:35, Romain d'Alverny wrote:
+>>> Summary (from http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=licensing_policy):
+>>>   * core: stuff that is not Free/Open Source according to OSI/FSF does
+>>> not belong here. Not even closed-source stuff that we can
+>>> redistribute. So if there is at this time, that's something to fix.
+>>
+>> Most of files in kernel-firmware (which is in core) are not OSI/FSF free
+>> (approximate list from 2010 [1]). There was a short thread about that
+>> [2] where I asked the question if they should be moved to non-free due
+>> to them not being OSI/FSF free, and tmb agreed, while pterjan disagreed
+>> (saying BSD without source code (where a portion of the firmware files
+>> in question fall) is eligible for core).
+>>
+>> [1] http://lists.mandriva.com/cooker/2010-01/msg00525.php
+>> [2] https://mageia.org/pipermail/mageia-dev/20110115/002172.html
+>
+> Ah right, sorry for overlooking this.
+>
+> So what do we do? amend core inclusion definition for that? or move
+> these to nonfree? (and at what cost?) topic for next Council meeting
+> to decide? would you like to write a summary for this in
+> http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=meeting:council_notes_2011_03_28#open_questions
+> ?
+>
+> Romain
+
+fwiw, I think the best solution is to have an express policy to include 
+such firmware in core.
+Without it, much hardware simply won't work.  Firmware/drivers are 
+essentially extensions to hardware, so that software can work with them.
+The hardware is changed, and firmware/drivers have to be changed to 
+accommodate the hardware.
+These firmware/drivers provide an interface which allows (free) software 
+to run.
+A practical solution, which doesn't hurt free software.
+The alternative is (free) software that doesn't run properly.
+
+my 2 cents :)
+-- 
+André
+