>  But I think the FPGAs in products are more like the possible computer

    >  in my microwave oven: nobody installs software in them, so they might

    >  as well be circuits.
    Really?  All those wifi/raid/cpu/etc cards/chips out there that need

    "firmware", you think they're not a mix of both microcontroller code and

    other binary bits that configure an ASIC or FPGA?
I am not a hardware expert; I don't know sort of hardware the firmware

blobs run on.  I will presume you're right.
Whether it runs on a computer or an FPGA, either way it's a program.

So the next crucial question is, do users normally install programs on

that device?  For some devices, the answer is no.  However, if the

firmware is stored in a file on the disk, and the system downloads it

into the device, the answer to that question is yes.
That is the case where I object to the non-free firmware blobs.