Non-opensource drivers

[Karl Goetz]

Toby Smithe wrote:
>> (I don't really buy into the free BIOS analogy, chiefly because, well,
>> we aren't shipping the BIOS so it's not our business.)
>>     
>
> No; I was talking about the user: why should the user be arguing against
> the firmware blobs when they aren't using a free BIOS? I think that on
>   
One reason is you (probably!) need to buy new gear to run linuxbios [1], 
and another is the bios is part of the [2] motherboard, not loaded in by 
the OS. Depending on pov you may agree/disagree with one or both.
kk

> this point, having non-free firmware only by default is acceptable. When
> free BIOSes become more prevalent, we can turn off the non-free firmware
> option.
>   
[1] http://linuxbios.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices
[2] Yes i'm aware its actually on a chip, but practically, its still 
part of the board.

-- 
Karl Goetz
User of gNewSense: Free as in Freedom - http://www.gnewsense.org
Australian Ubuntu users team - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/AustralianTeam