On Sunday 04 October 2009 10:57:35 Oron Peled wrote:
> On Sunday, 4 בOctober 2009 00:42:39 Shlomi Fish wrote:
>
> > It's not as if the distributor encourages using it - it's
> > just part of giving a complete user-experience. Mandriva, Gentoo, Fedora,
> > Debian, Ubuntu, etc. are complete operating systems, and they should be
> > as comprehensive as possible.
>
> I can only speak about the distribution I use. Point to a single package
> with a non-free license in Fedora and I'll open the removal bug-report
> for you.
>
I usually use Debian. While Debian (except for the explicitly marked "non-
free" repository) only includes packages with free licenses (and by "free" I
mean DFSG free, which is sometimes stricter than the FSF definitions), it
includes the Linux kernel; and the Linux kernel in most versions (like
Debian's) includes "binary firmware blobs" -- strings of bytes which are,
basically, machine code for peripherals, with no source code.
I don't know if Fedora removes all those bits, but I'll be somewhat surprised
if they do.
In case you're wondering, bug-reports against the Linux kernel -- upto and
including a call for its removal -- were opened. Debian then made a project
decision that firmware removal was a "best-effort" only issue. It was a big
deal last year. Google for "Debian binary blob Lenny" if you're interested.
This is not really a point for or against liberal licensing -- just a reminder
that a fully-free operating system is not simple, and is not purely a
licensing issue.
Have fun,
Shai.
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