Re: A proposal - binary

[Alan Cox]

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


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