Re: linux-2.6: includes nondistributable and non-free binary firmware
[Reply-To set to the list, I really don't want this idiocy in my
personal Inbox.]
On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 10:07:42AM -0700, ldoolitt@recycle.lbl.gov wrote:
> If the kernel team decides on (2) or (3), I'd be happy to
> help with the coding. (Note that, due to the unfortunate
> state of upstream, most of the patching/deletion has to
> happen in the creation of the .orig.tar.gz file, not the
> .diff.gz file) Unfortunately, due to a lack of hardware,
> I can't help with any testing (other than "does it compile").
>
No wonder you're so fucking enthusiastic about removing support for
hardware. You don't own any of it. How fucking convenient.
Since we seem to be pissing all over the spirit of the Social Contract
in the name of some holy quest for the unattainable goal of cooperative
vendors, Matthew Garrett[1] and I[2] have filed bugs to remove support for
all NVidia devices. Enjoy VESA folks.
1. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=383465
2. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=383481
Now, I don't think you understand what "preferred form of modification" is.
In all likelihood, the engineer who wrote, for example, the QLogic driver,
never even touched the firmware, never once questioned it, another engineer
simply gave him an array to copy to the card. The engineer who wrote the
driver didn't know, or care, about what should have just been on an EEPROM,
all he cared about was properly writing a Linux driver to talk to the
hardware.
This is the difference between a piece of firmware, and an actual
binary blob that something calls into.
Conviently, this is also the difference between the ``free'' NVidiot
drivers, and any of the firmware-encumbered drivers you posted. No one,
and I really mean No One, can really claim to contribute meaningfully
to those NVidia drivers. However, all of the other drivers you mentioned
have likely had substancially contributions from outsiders (other than
the vendor, I mean.) (I say "likely" with a degree of certainty, having
seen patches from !vendors for most of them.)
Now, don't you have something better to do than hurt our users?
Lots of love,
Kyle M.
PS: I feel it again worth mentioning, that even if there were no firmware
in the driver, you would just get the exact same data if you pulled the
EEPROM and stuck it in a reader.
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