I would love to gain the idea that’s possible what are the downsides and upsides. Based on that philosophy Nvidia is impossible right now.
Regardless of your stance on GPL or not, I find the firmware stance very strange.
If software is made available to you, you must reject it. But as long as the hardware runs it behind closed doors, you can use it.
The CPU microcode situation is a good example. You can run your CPU, having no idea what it is doing or how it works. No problem. But if they ship an update to fix a bug, you cannot apply that update unless it is open source. The “free” choice is to run known vulnerabilities on top of the black box. And the in-chip behaviour is complex enough that Intel chips included a whole UNIX-like operating system in them (Minix) and people did not even realize it. The same is true for every chip in your system. Crazy.
If you are not going to demand open hardware, there is no point in being so absolutist about the firmware. That is even if you want to be truly hard core about the software running on top.
I ran Trisquel for a little while several years ago. It was an interesting exercise but ultimately limitations pop up. I’d say it’s useful as a motivator to try to choose hardware that is more liberated.
Yes, I’ve run Trisquel on all house devices for 10-12 years, plus libreboot.
Other commenters are correct, plenty of hardware will not function at all without its proprietary blobs. Frustrating at first, but then good riddance once you find libre alternatives.
For new hardware purchases you can follow what hardware various online hardware retailers are using, such as:
Or trawl through h-node.org to decipher what may work.
This trims out all the proprietary fluff real quick, both software and hardware. Backdoor vectors from obfuscated-blobs are removed.
Trimmed out a ton of games too. No big loss. Initially thinking there was no way to live without X-proprietary game, but there is.
Many people have jobs that are tied to particular proprietary packages. Can run those contained in a virtual-machine or on a box other than your daily.
Proprietary software may or may not be brainrot, make your own conclusions, but I am calmer and sleep better these days.
I’ve met Stallman, Linus, and Wales, and they are shining a light to show a realistic path to a more open future. I support and use that each day.
Skip the FUD and all the best.
You will have issues with most peripheals as they often require some form of firmware blob. Wifi, Bluetooth and lots of USB devices needs them.
All of them are like that? I mean isn’t there any alternative to proprietary firmware blobs that is well not proprietary and blobed? For example for WiFi or just USB.
It really depends on the hardware. Some might have, most don’t.
Any “modern” wifi will require a firmware blob. But if you are ok with older wifi chips like ath9k, then you can avoid the blob.
I don’t and I wouldn’t really recommend it. Chances are a lot of hardware won’t work and you’re also running outdated firmware on devices that do work.
For example you won’t get CPU microcode updates fixing bugs/security issues and have to hope your motherboard manufacturer releases the updated version soon or at all.Ah I see. Understood, thank you for that.
I do use it, as it’s the default kernel of the GNU Guix distro which I use daily.
The main drawbacks is that it forces you to choose your hardware wisely, using e.g. h-node.org to be sure it’s compatible. Otherwise, this is quite exactly the same kernel, just really free as in freedom.
Great! That’s what I wanted to read with hardware compatibility. Thanks.
