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This is why the insistence of people like RMS and Theo de Raadt on completely open firmware and drivers is important. Binary blob drivers aren't "convenient,"
by sedachv 16y ago
This is why the insistence of people like RMS and Theo de Raadt on completely open firmware and drivers is important.
Binary blob drivers aren't "convenient," they are a violation of your privacy.
The ACPI and EFI firmware interfaces in newer PCs are particularly bad in this respect.
- listic 16y agoCan you please explain in wihich respect ACPI and EFI is worse than BIOS ?
- jarek 16y agoI'd guess it's because BIOS doesn't require OS drivers to work properly.
- sedachv 16y agoEFI is basically binary DRM spyware, and by specification it's impossible to build a fully open source EFI BIOS: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=236384 http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=236384 http://archive.fosdem.org/2007/interview/ronald+g+minnich http://archive.fosdem.org/2007/interview/ronald+g+minnich ACPI drivers are bytecode blobs that the BIOS passes to the kernel, and expects the kernel to interpret in priveleged mode: http://lwn.net/2001/0704/kernel.php3 http://lwn.net/2001/0704/kernel.php3 With the old PC BIOS and APM, it is possible to implement a fully Free Software firmware, with no 3rd party binary crap or DRM malware. http://www.coreboot.org/ http://www.coreboot.org/ does this.