Re: A proposal - binary

Alan Cox
2006-08-03T20:44:25Z

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