Ubuntu tainting the kernel with proprietary drivers ?

[Conrad Knauer]

As per the Wikipedia article on Ubuntu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(Linux_distribution)

"Non-free software is usually unsupported (Multiverse), but some
exceptions (Restricted) are made for very important non-free software,
such as non-free device drivers lack of which might prevent a user
from running Ubuntu on his/her system, particularly binary-only
graphics card drivers. The level of support is more limited than for
main, since the developers may not have access to the source code. It
is intended that Main and Restricted should contain all software
needed for a general-use Linux system. Alternative programs for the
same tasks and programs for specialised applications are placed in
Universe and Multiverse."

IOW, if you have perfectly open hardware you could run Ubuntu from
just the main repository.  But because most people don't, the naughty
"non-free device drivers" are placed in restricted and are installed
on an as-needed basis.

Now, what bothers me about the article you quoted was that he went
further, claiming (based on a forum post) that "the proprietary
firmware are not in pool/restricted/, they are included in
linux-image-2.6.15-23-686_2.6.15-23.39_i386.deb, the main kernel
package"

Based on everything that I understand about Ubuntu's separation of
free and non-free code, this would be a big no-no... if (and that's a
big if) it were true.

One of the reasons that it doesn't make sense to toss restricted code
into the main kernel package is that AFAIK, you could have the same
effect by keeping the files separate and just using modprobe or such
to add them together in RAM during bootup.  So maybe these are now
free versions of the proprietary ones?  And if they aren't, why did
they only move some but not all of the non-free ones into the kernel?
Best to get confirmation directly from Ubuntu (or the devels) rather
than second-hand.

Let us know what you find out.

CK

On 6/11/06, Fabian Rodriguez <mailinglists at fabianrodriguez.com> wrote:

> http://fasmz.org/~pterjan/blog/?date=20060609#p01
>
> I posted in a few IRC channels withouth much information, and don't know
> how to handle it, but I see it as part of some trolls and rumour
> spreading posts that we may encounter more and more as Ubuntu becomes
> more popular. I can respond to most criticism but would like help on
> this one.
>
> I particularly don't like the subjective insinuations:
> "What is shocking me is not that Ubuntu is a non-free distribution,
> forcing all of its users to install non-free software. What is shocking
> me is that almost nobody knows it and a lot of people install or offer
> Ubuntu thinking it is free software ! I wonder how did Ubuntu people
> manage to keep that so confidential, I don't even find this information
> in the numerous Ubuntu vs Debian trolls...