[Mageia-dev] free software purity question

[Christiaan Welvaart]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2012, Johnny A. Solbu wrote:

> On Thursday 19 July 2012 04:35, blind Pete wrote:
>> My attitude to non-free firmware is in flux.  At the moment
>> I am annoyed by it, but accept it as a fact of life and just
>> install it.  
>
> I am more that just anoyed. I flat out refuse to install proprietary 
> drivers, as I don't trust them. The reason is that we can't 
> independently verify that they haven't included a backdoor with the 
> driver, to spy on us or the like. Now, I don't believe that they do, but 
> we can't verify it. Also we can't change it to suit our needs. The 
> sacrifice is performance and functionality.

Why are you talking about *drivers* when the remark you quote is about 
*firmware* ? Some open source drivers don't work (well) without them 
loading non-free firmware into the device.


     Christiaan