By Ryan Paul
January 06, 2009 - 06:35AM CT

The developers behind the Debian Linux distribution are preparing for the upcoming release of Debian 5, which is codenamed Lenny. The decision to move forward with the release follows a contentious vote over whether to permit the inclusion of binary blobs in the new version of the distribution. Consensus coalesced around a controversial proposal to "assume blobs comply with the GPL unless proven otherwise."

The issue centers around a long-running dispute about the licensing implications of allowing binary firmware components to be bundled in the kernel. Although the practice of embedding proprietary firmware in hardware devices is widely accepted, some free software purists object to scenarios where the binary firmware components are stored in the kernel and loaded into the hardware at runtime. The debate over this issue has raged for years and a close examination of what it entails is beyond the scope of this article.

Some mainstream Linux distributions—such as Ubuntu—take a pragmatic view on the issue. Debian, however, has deep ideological roots and a development culture that holds software freedom in high regard. Critics of binary firmware within the Debian community argue that the growing tolerance of binary firmware represents an unambiguous deviation from the principles embodied in Debian's social contract and free software guidelines.

Voting controversy - The debate renewed last month as the Debian development community began the task of determining whether or not the release of version 5 should be delayed to facilitate the purge of binary firmware blobs. The matter was put to a vote through the general resolution process. The Debian election methodology is moderately complex and somewhat confusing to outsiders.