Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Felipe Sanches]

I'm a free software activist and I use the term "free software" with
exactly this meaning of free as in freedom. So please re-read my
statements.

On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 6:55 PM, Jean Louis <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 01, 2016 at 06:47:04PM -0300, Felipe Sanches wrote:
>> "Please provide clear list of that, as that can help certainly.
>> It is good to remember that "free firmware" cannot be free software,
>> as there is no corresponding source code for that. It is firmware."
>>
>> This sounds pretty much non-sense to me. Maybe we have incompatible
>> definitions of what "firmware" means. So, to make my point clear, by
>> "firmware" I mean bare-metal software. That is... very low level
>> software that runs on the CPUs or microcontrollers of an electronics
>> board. And yes firmware can be free software. Libreboot is one famous
>> example of free firmware (in particular, bootcode).
>
> Good! So, libreboot has the corresponding source code, right?
>
> 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 I say "free" I mean by 4 software freedoms. Binary or blob or
> firmware is not free without the corresponding source code. That is what
> I meant with it: there are no "free firmware" or "free ROMs", as if
> someone says in that manner, I would assume he gives me final product or
> binary, which cannot be free software without the source code.
>
> Jean Louis
>