[Solar-general] Debian 6.0 Squeeze to be released with completely free Kernel(s)

[Marcos Germán Guglielmetti]

Stefano Zacchiroli: squeeze your non-free firmware away
via Planet Debian by Stefano Zacchiroli on 12/15/10

Debian 6.0 Squeeze to be released with completely free Kernel(s)
Today we have announced that, starting with the upcoming release of Squeeze, 
Debian will be even Free-er. Exceptions to the DFSG for non-free Linux 
firmware blobs, which have been granted in the past, will no longer be 
granted. Starting from Squeeze, Debian will be Free the bottom up, no matter 
where your own definition of software ends.
The news has been known for a while within the Debian development community, 
but we had the pleasure of sharing that with our users only today. According 
to the reaction on identi.ca, where the news quickly made into the most 
popular notices, people are enthusiastic about the news and that in turn is 
very rewarding.
If you are as happy and proud about this achievement as I am, please direct 
your kudos to all the teams who made this possible:
the Debian kernel team who worked for the past 2 release cycles, together with 
Linux upstream, to split free-vs-non-free firmware bits and monitor new 
releases to avoid freedom regressions;
the Debian CD team who basically "forked" different media production lines, 
for different user needs wrt firmware;
the d-i team who added, long ago, support for loading user-provided firmware 
at installation time;
whoever else I might have forgotten who contributed to this result (feel free 
to leave a comment to refresh my memory!).
Having been trol^W asked several times in the past about the "real freeness" 
of Debian at events, talks, and the like, I consider this episode to be a 
very nice story to tell. While we have granted exceptions for Linux firmware 
at the time of Etch and Lenny releases, during this time Debian people have 
worked, together with upstream, to make this final result possible. All this 
work has improved the situation not only for Debian users, but also for users 
of those derivatives which rely upon Debian kernels.
Nonetheless, don't expect us to live under a rock. We know that there are 
users out there who need nasty non-free firmware bits to boot their machines 
or to access the Internet. That is why separate images with firmware included 
are being provided, although they are not part of Debian and are 
properly "discriminated": they should be looked for explicitly by users and 
can't be supported to the same extent of Free firmware, simply because we (as 
anybody else other than the hardware manufacturer) do not have access to the 
corresponding source code.
This separation is a perfect example of the pragmatism embodied by the Debian 
Social contract: Debian consists of 100% Free software; at the same time, 
Debian enables its users to make their own choices in terms of Freedom, being 
explicit about what users risk if they cross the boundaries of DFSG. 
Awareness is the key here and I find it to be a very honest yet effective way 
of explaining to the world why Free Software is better.
This is not the end of the story though, as we need to document this change 
properly to both increase awareness and avoid leaving users in the dark. A 
couple of bugs filed today might benefit from the help of some kind 
doc-writers: Debian bug #607191 (documenting the firmware change in the 
Squeeze release notes) and Debian bug #607193 (documenting the firmware 
change on the website).



-- 
                   Marcos Guglielmetti
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::::::::::::::::::      M U S I X   :::::::::::::::::::::                  
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		    www.musix.org.ar
	             www.ovejafm.com

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PD: usen dukgo.com 
es genial y va camino a ser totalmente libre ¡y no te espía! :-D

¿Cuáles serían las libertades esenciales en Medios de Comunicación Libres? 
listas, sitios, etc.
0) La libertad de usar los medios de comunicación con cualquier propósito 
(uso)
1) La libertad de auditar los medios de comunicación y adaptarlos a tus 
necesidades. El acceso a los paneles de administración es una condición 
previa para esto. (estudio)
2) La libertad de crear otros usuarios y medios de comunicación, con lo que 
puedes ayudar a tu prójimo. (copia)
3) La libertad de modificar en los medios de comunicación y hacer públicas las 
mejoras a los demás, de modo que toda la comunidad se beneficie. El acceso al 
panel de administración es un requisito previo para esto. (mejora)


"our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of 
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its 
beauty" Einstein