Re: [GNU-linux-libre] MAME

[Felipe Sanches]

Now people seem to thing that the definition of "firmware" is
something like "piece of lowlevel program without freedom-respecting
source-code" :-P That's not true! Look how crazy this situation has
got

Not only Libreboot is an example of freedom-respecting firmware
project, I could also mention the Rockbox project as well (and also
the Arduino bootloader and probably many other sw freedom projects).
Thus, it is pretty clear that "being non-free" is not a necessary
characteristic of a piece of software for it to be called "firmware".

On Fri, Apr 1, 2016 at 7:07 PM, Felipe Sanches <address@hidden> wrote:
> 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
>>