[Bug 206619] "About FreeBSD" page promises "full source code"

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Jan 25, 2016, 2:12:29 PM1/25/16

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Bug ID: 206619
Summary: "About FreeBSD" page promises "full source code"
Product: Documentation
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any
URL: https://www.freebsd.org/about.html
OS: Any
Status: New
Severity: Affects Many People
Priority: ---
Component: Website
Assignee: freeb...@FreeBSD.org
Reporter: f...@fabiankeil.de

The "About FreeBSD" page (https://www.freebsd.org/about.html) claims:
"FreeBSD is available free of charge and comes with full source code."

The "full source code" part is unfortunately false as FreeBSD
contains sourceless host and microcode.

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Jan 25, 2016, 4:58:51 PM1/25/16

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Jan 26, 2016, 5:02:09 AM1/26/16

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Fabian Keil <f...@fabiankeil.de> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|Closed |Open
Resolution|Works As Intended |---

--- Comment #1 from Fabian Keil <f...@fabiankeil.de> ---
Please clarify what you think "Works As Intended".

I did not file this bug against the non-free binary blobs
in base, but against the website which incorrectly claims
that FreeBSD "comes with full source code".

To fix this bug, the sentence could be reworded to something
like: "FreeBSD is available free of charge, parts of it come
with source code."

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Jan 26, 2016, 10:55:15 AM1/26/16

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Conrad E. Meyer <c...@freebsd.org> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|Open |Closed

Resolution|--- |Works As Intended

--- Comment #2 from Conrad E. Meyer <c...@freebsd.org> ---
You elided the first half of the sentence: "While you might expect an operating
system with these features to sell for a high price,"

Clearly the reference is to other *operating systems*, which cost money or
don't ship their source (Windows). Perhaps the reference is dated.

FreeBSD ships the full source of the operating system FreeeBSD releases. You
get everything we get. We are generally not interested in tilting against the
"binary firmware blobs aren't open source!" windmill.

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Jan 27, 2016, 2:30:42 PM1/27/16

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--- Comment #3 from Fabian Keil <f...@fabiankeil.de> ---
Thanks for the clarification.

Obviously I still consider the sentence false and misleading,
but at least it's clear to me now that you disagree.

FYI, I'm reasonably sure that if you get Windows from a vendor
other than Microsoft itself, you get all the sources the vendor
has as well.

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Aug 2, 2016, 5:53:46 PM8/2/16

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--- Comment #4 from commi...@freebsd.org ---
A commit references this bug:

Author: emaste
Date: Tue Aug 2 21:53:12 UTC 2016
New revision: 49208
URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/49208

Log:
update description of included source code on about page

Avoid quibbling over device firmware files that do not include source
code. It's clear from the context that this (perhaps dated) paragraph
is making a comparison to closed-source operating systems, but the
sentence may be interpreted differently in 2016.

PR: 206619
Reviewed by: wblock
Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D5628

Changes:
head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/about.xml