Thanks for your work. As I see it the main difference between the Squeeze kernel and Linux-Libre is the ability to load non-free firmware and as such the very mentioning of non-free firmware files in the soruce code.
The Squeeze kernel is still able to load non-free firmware, but it's not delivered in the main repository (it is in the non-free repo, AFAIK). Linux-Libre isn't able to load non-free firmware, even if you obtain the non-free firmware files somehow. So, it's a matter of attitude. Do we give the user the opportunity to use non-free software if he wishes to do so, despite the recommendations, or do we prevent it proactively? For example, GNU Icecat doesn't suggest non-free plugins. But Icecat is still able to load non-free plugins, it is not prevented proactively. Of course, the main difference is, that non-free software isn't mentioned in the Icecat source code (at least I assume so, I didn't check), where non-free software is explicitly mentioned hard-coded in the source code, so the situation is only slightly comparable. Giving the user the ability to use non-free software without any comment leads to a situation where unexperienced users might be not knowing what they are doing. For example Debian help forums are full of advices for novice users to activate the non-free repository. Same goes for Fedora where novice users are encouraged in forums to integrate non-official repositories with non-free software. To proactively prevent the use of non-free software on the other hand is censorship. I recall RMS pointing out in an interview that any free operating system should allow to do anything. I CC him, maybe he has some thoughts to add. Kind regards, Henry On Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:56:07 -0800 (PST) "Jason Self" <[email protected]> wrote: > In light of Debian's recent announcement [1] I and others were interested in > how > well the Debian folks cleaned up their kernel. I proceeded to grab the source > for the Squeeze kernel, ran the linux-libre deblobbing script on it, and then > diffed it against the original to see what had changed. > > The full deblob log [2] & diff [3] is available to anyone that's interested in > knowing. > > [1] http://www.debian.org/News/2010/20101215 > [2] http://aws.bluehome.net/squeeze_kernel_deblog_log.txt > [3] http://aws.bluehome.net/squeeze_kernel_diff.txt
