Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Alexandre Oliva]

On Apr  1, 2016, Jean Louis <address@hidden> wrote:

> Firmware or blobs are removed from mainstream Linux kernel exactly for
> that reason that there is no source code or/and there is no free software
> license.

When firmware lacks source code, we call it a blob, and it is non-Free
Software.

But there is firmware that has corresponding source code available, and
both sources and binaries are available under Free Software licenses.
That is firmware, but not a blob.

Free Software firmware is not disabled or removed in GNU Linux-libre.

There's yet another kind of firmware that's not even software, just
initial register settings for the hardware.  Those are often disabled
along with other software blobs that accompany them, but there are some
non-software blobs that come to mind that don't get disabled: the CIS
files used to configure PCMCIA cards.  Although they are in binary form
and they aren't accompanied by correspoding sources, there is Free
Software to convert this binary representation back to a human-readable
source representation, and then back, without any loss of information in
either direction.  We used to remove these from Linux-libre (before it
became a GNU project) until it became apparent that the binary
representation was as good as sources, and the license was ok.


In BSD land, blob has a broader meaning: it is used to refer to
sourceless binary-only drivers, not just sourceless binary-only
firmware.  That's presumably because their kernel license doesn't object
to combinations with such drivers.


So please be careful with terminology.  Don't assume all firmware is
non-Free Software, because that's not the case.  And don't assume that
all firmware is a blob, because that's not the case either.

-- 
Alexandre Oliva, freedom fighter    http://FSFLA.org/~lxoliva/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi
Be Free! -- http://FSFLA.org/   FSF Latin America board member
Free Software Evangelist|Red Hat Brasil GNU Toolchain Engineer