The issue of binary kernel blobs cropped up on the gNewSense Mailing list recently. The discussion I saw was friendly enough, but the real benefit for me was that I got to see just why kernel blobs are so, well... contentious.
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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Get Adequate Documentation
It seems to me that to really understand the processes behind these sections of lower level hackery, you'd need to be some sort specialised knowledge relating to operating systems. For me, it doesn't matter if a section of code was written in assembly assuming there is adequate documentation. For me, this would be comments that explain why certain logic or values were used to solve a problem. Documentation for hardware specifications would also be required for this level of hackery.
So please, support the free software movement by purchasing from companies that respect the movement enough to publish the things we need to support ourselves. An example would be for ATI that have published some of the specifications that detail some parts of the hardware they sell. Though ATI haven't yet published all that we require, they have pledged to do so over time.