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why NetBSD include binary/blob driver or firmware by default?




Hello!

I have recently encountered with a broadcom ethernet card that NetBSD 4.0/4.1 supports and it works perfectly - while 'gnu/linux' gnewsense and trisquel does not support. These linux distributions are supported by Free Software Foundation and they have blob-free kernel and softwares - which means 100% free distributions: http://www.gnu.org/links/links.html#FreeGNULinuxDistributions

While searching about this issue, i noticed that NetBSD, too, includes drivers and firmwares without source code, most or all has suffix _uu in src tee.



I kindly ask - respecting efforts of all NetBSD team:


Could you please advise me, why NetBSD should include those drivers in src source code or in default installation and why not make an OS with 100% visible codes? Is it really hard to push them to pkgsrc tree and add assign acceptable_license?

In this case, 'sysutils/wpi-firmware2' which is binary firmware, would be a good sample if it ask user's permission (acceptable_license) to install the blob - It installs immediately now.



Best regards,













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