[GNUz] GNUz Out with Ubuntu and in with GNU/.....?

[Nick Rout]

On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 12:18 PM, Don Gould <don at bowenvale.co.nz> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> What's your thoughts on Ubuntu - FLOSS?
>
> I took to understand that Ubuntu was free but following Richards
> presentation it seems it's not.



Any small amount of research would reveal that the kernel has binary blobs
(firmware) and therefore doesn't match rms' definition of Free as in Libre.
Nor in fact does any distro unless it patches the kernel to delete such
stuff.

I still think its ironic that if the firmware were built in to the device
(hardwired or burned into PROM or otherwise not user upgradeable) it
wouldn't be an issue for rms, but the fact it is uploaded from the computer
into the peripheral device does make it an issue. It seems to me that taking
rms' arguments to their logical conclusion then our hardware and firmware
has to be Libre too, otherwise we get stuck with "Trusted Computing".

I appreciate the need to draw a line, and (if I understand him correctly)
rms has drawn it somewhere between uploadable firmware and fixed firmware.
But to my mind his line is practical but not necessarily logical.

There are moves towards libre hardware solutions:

1.  I am aware of the attempted development of an open video card.

2.  Beagleboard is an interesting project:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/beagleboard-149-linux-system

See here for a fuller list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_hardware
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