That Which We Call Free

URL: http://kerneltrap.org/OpenBSD/That_Which_We_Call_Free

GNU Project and Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman
posted a message on the OpenBSD -misc mailing list titled, "real men
don't attack straw men", suggesting that some comments he had made were
being misrepresented. He noted, "one question particularly relevant for
this list is why I don't recommend OpenBSD. It is not about what the
system allows. (Any general purpose system allows doing anything at
all.) It is about what the system suggests to the user." He went on to
note that though he knew of no non-free software included in the base
OpenBSD system, there was non-free software distributed via the ports
collection, "if a collection of software contains (or suggests
installation of) some non-free program, I do not recommend it."

In the email, RMS added that he was unsure whether or not OpenBSD
includes any non-free firmware blobs. It was pointed out that OpenBSD
is known for being explicity focused on not shipping blobs. As for
binary firmware, Reyk Floeter explained, "there is a major difference
between binary blobs and firmware images; the blobs are loaded as code
into the OS kernel, but the firmware runs directly on the device on
crappy embedded micro CPUs." Reyk is the author of the reverse
engineered ar5k HAL OpenBSD uses to support the Atheros wireless
chipset, which was recently adopted by the Linux-based MadWifi project
in their ath5k driver. Reyk added, "I'm clearly against binary blobs in
the kernel, and in contrast to most of the GNU/Linux dudes I _did_ some
against it by writing ar5k, instead of pointing into the wrong
direction. This open firmware discussion is just a joke to make the
relevant discussion, binary blobs in the OS kernel, irrelevant." Marco
Peereboom added, "OpenBSD is by far the most free OS in the landscape.
Everything that ships with it is free or else it won't be distributed
with it. There is not a single open source OS out there that is more
careful than OpenBSD on licensing, copyrights and frivolous patents."

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