Re: GitHub Open Source Survey 2017
On Wed, Jun 07, 2017 at 11:07:19AM -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Jun 2017, Christian Seiler wrote:
> > Am 2017-06-06 22:19, schrieb Adam Borowski:
> > >Or
> > >that you can sanely run x86 without at least {intel,amd64}-microcode.
> >
> > Well, on some systems you can install BIOS/UEFI updates that will
> > load newer microcode very early in the boot process. In that case
> > you really don't need the {intel-amd64}-microcode packages, and
> > you could potentially run just Debian main without any non-free
> > software on the disk.
>
> Provided that the system vendor issues timely updates and you check for
> new updates (and install them) frequently.
I thus prefer for someone to be [un]paid to do that work for me.
> And, unfortunately, even if you do, you could easily be still at risk:
> Too many system vendors are BAD at issuing regular firmware updates, and
> there are those that issue BIOS updates but stop updating the microcode
> inside.
I have yet to see a system vendor who issues BIOS/firmware updates at all
after 1-2 years after manufacture. If they don't sell the given piece of
hardware anymore, there's no money to be made by keeping it updated.
And, even if they do issue such updates, they tend to be providen as Windows
executables, which is unfun if you don't even have Windows on the machine in
question.
> So, and I *am* sorry to say this, users in the general case *are* much
> better off with intel-microcode and amd64-microcode installed.
Why would this be a bad thing (beside needing non-free microcode at all)?
If I need to run non-free stuff, I prefer it to be where I can see it.
Meow!
--
⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ A tit a day keeps the vet away.
⣾⠁⢰⠒⠀⣿⡁
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ (Rejoice as my small-animal-murder-machine got unbroken after
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ nearly two years of no catch!)
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