[GNU-linux-libre] Re: Freedom issues with non-free firmware in external files

[Yavor Doganov]

Mgg wrote:
> On Fri 14 Aug 2009 15:08:18 Rubén Rodríguez Pérez wrote:
> > I think that a program that needs a proprietary piece to work is
> > not free software, even if it is GPL'd.
> 
> a too opresive view

I disagree; this is the view of the free software movement.  What are
the "oppressive" bits here?  A GPL'ed program that relies on non-free
software to function properly is free software, but it's useless in
the Free World.  Hence, we should not distribute such programs.

There are many past and present examples of these:

  * The KDE stack when Qt was proprietary software;
  * Any free Java program that relied on classes not implemented in
    GCJ/Classpath, before Sun made their implementation free software.
  * Lots of free Mac OS X/Cocoa programs that rely on classes/methods
    that are not implemented in GNUstep;
  * A free device driver that relies on non-free firmware to operate.