Let me address one aspect that nobody seems to have thought of: in the last years we have been diving right into the era of processors containing smaller proces

Let me address one aspect that nobody seems to have thought of: in the last years we have been diving right into the era of processors containing smaller processors, and closed blobs instructing them to do things neither users nor developers have any knowledge or control, that is, pervasive potential surveillance built by design in every piece of hardware bigger than a toaster. If IBM donating the Power instruction set and patents means that just one CPU will come out of it, although 50% more slow and costly than the competition but free from shady subsystems, ie a trustworthy CPU, I would call that a huge victory. Closed chipsets device drivers are another similar problem, still that would be a good start nonetheless.