[gNewSense-users] Stop the Blob

[Carsten Agger]

An interesting article in FS Daily, closely related to the goals of
gNewSense:

http://www.fsdaily.com/stop-blob


A couple of quotes, this one I believe from The de Raadt:

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There are always at least a few efforts in the project to get more
documentation out of vendors. But some vendors are still incredibly
resistant. We often run into vendors who have signed NDA agreements with
Linux developers, who will then happily write a Linux driver filled with
magic numbers, which only one developer in the world understands. Having
signed the NDA ensured that Linux got a working driver, sure, but the
internals are indistinguishable from magic. It cannot be fixed by anyone
else, because it is full of secrets. It is a source code version of a
blob.

There are many reasons why vendors will not give information out. I
believe that all their reasons are a lie to the customer. I can get nearly
complete data books for the parts that are in my car, and I should be able
to get them for the parts in my computer.
-----------------

and

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 ... as far as I think it's good that the attention of general open source
public has been, hopefully, turned to the the problem named blob (and I
think it's better late than never), stating more or less officially that
the problem exists and is "harmful and undesirable" will not make it
disappear. So, what are you -- the community -- going to do about it?
-----------------

gNewSense is doing something about it - it's taking the blobs out. A good
thing, too! :-)

br
Carsten

--
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