Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: A proposal - binary | From | Alan Cox <> | Date | Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:03:37 +0100 |
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Ar Iau, 2006-08-03 am 11:08 -0700, ysgrifennodd Zachary Amsden: > encourage open sourced firmware layers, instead of trying to ban drivers > which rely on firmware from the kernel.
The reasons for pushing downloadable firmware out of the kernel are manyfold and based on legal advice.
MORAL: Many free software people like a clean separation between the free and non-free components of a system
LEGAL: Some firmware isn't publically redistributable but comes with the h/w
LEGAL: Several lawyers have advised people that putting firmware separate to the kernel is different to embedding it in kernel in terms of the derivative work question.
TECHNICAL: Unswappable blobs of kernel memory taken up by firmware is bad generally speaking
TECHNICAL: Pulling 20Mb of unchanging firmware each kernel tree is annoying
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