| Debian permits binary blobs |
Jan. 12, 2009
 The Debian project has voted to allow the use of binary blobs in the upcoming release of Debian 5, codenamed Lenny, says a news story. The decision is said to have followed a contentious debate over the issue, with open-source purists arguing against the move.
(Click for larger view of "Lenny," captured from Pixar Animation's Toy Story trailer)
With the binary issue settled, the long-delayed Lenny appears to be nearing a release date. Lenny's launch was originally scheduled for September, but may have been held up in part by a need for more embedded involvement. The binary debate, meanwhile, seems to have added another month or two to the process. Assuming that Lenny ships this month, it will match the 21-month gestation period for the prior Debian 4.0 ("Etch") release.
The Debian community, which has largely maintained a strict interpretation of the free software principles of open source licensing, has voted to "assume blobs comply with the GPL unless proven otherwise," says a report by Ryan Paul in Ars Technica. Although, Debian-based devices often include proprietary firmware such as binary blobs, Debian purists want to draw a clear line by prohibiting the inclusion of binary firmware stored in the kernel that are loaded into hardware at runtime.
In the debate leading up to the vote, critics argued that tolerating binary firmware represented a deviation from free software guidelines, as well as the principles behind Debian's social contract, writes Paul. Some argued that Debian secretary Manoj Srivastava mismanaged the vote, and in the resulting brouhaha, Srivastava has since resigned. The debate elicited several eloquent pleas on both sides, including this pro-acceptance blog from Linux Foundation CTO Ted T'so, who argued that Debian has suffered from a fundamentalist adherence to open-source ideals.
In the end, the decision to accept the binaries seemed to have derived less from ideology than it did from the practical issue of releasing Lenny in a (more) timely fashion. Had the community voted to remove the offending binaries, further delays would be unavoidable, as the binaries have already worked their way into the distribution.
The accepted proposal, found here, states, "We give priority to the timely release of Lenny over sorting every bit out; for this reason, we will treat removal of sourceless firmware as a best-effort process, and deliver firmware as part of Debian Lenny as long as we are legally allowed to do so."
The accepted Debian proposal concerning binary blobs, should be should be here, and the Ars Technica report "Debian 5 release approaches... binary blobs included," should be here. More information on the Debian 5 release may be found in our earlier coverage.
-- Eric Brown
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