Re: Keep both images but stop pretending no-free is unofficial
2022, ഏപ്രിൽ 20 1:52:45 PM IST, Ansgar <ansgar@43-1.org>ൽ എഴുതി
>On Wed, 2022-04-20 at 12:55 +0530, Pirate Praveen wrote:
>> liberated.computer it is refurbished and some components like wifi
>> cards replaced so it works with 100% free software.
>
>No, it doesn't. It just *hides* the fact that you use non-free
>software. If you are happy with that, fine, but please don't claim it
>uses 100% free software.
So are our official images not 100% free? If so what are we even proposing to change?
This question was about a desire to ship libre version of the image with a laptop that can work with that image. Someone asked if such a laptop exist in reality and I pointed out to someone doing that actually.
>And everything from keyboard, mice, storage (SD cards, SSD, rotating
>disks, controllers), ... has firmware. I don't expect them to have done
>much about that. Of course some devices come with preinstalled
>firmware, so it's easy to ignore the firmware exists. However, that
>does not "free" you from the restrictions of proprietary software that
>comes from using non-free firmware in any way compared to having the OS
>supply the firmware data.
There are many layers of issues regarding firmware. I did not oppose creating a non free image. I was only asking to keep creating the free image for those who want it.
https://forums.puri.sm/t/does-respects-your-freedom-certification-allow-updating-of-proprietary-firmware/9484/6
This has a pretty in depth analysis. I tend to agree with the criteria FSF set for RYF certification relating to firmware.
"The rational is that the particular bit pattern which constitutes the firmware is relatively fixed, and so is essentially hardware. Of course, just like the company need not glue the case shut to prevent the end user from using a shunt-mod to overclock the GPU, they similarly don’t have to clip off the JTAG pins to prevent the user from rearranging those bits however they like. They just must not expect the user to do so (or have software on the machine to do it for the user automatically) in order to have a correctly functioning machine."
Specifically this,
They just must not expect the user to do so (or have software on the machine to do it for the user automatically) in order to have a correctly functioning machine.
So a person with RYF certified hardware should be a able to use an image without the proprietary firmware. As I already clarified, I just want to keep the free image option and not opposed to the separate non-free image.
>Ansgar
>
--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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