> It's my understanding that this was more like an added shim layer in the kernel, and that it just communicates to the (still proprietary) code now in firmware

> It's my understanding that this was more like an added shim layer in the kernel, and that it just communicates to the (still proprietary) code now in firmware. In other words the blob moved, but it's still there, just shimmed. There's a very important difference: that firmware runs in a separate processor, which assuming a working IOMMU (and that firmware has to assume a working IOMMU, since the IOMMU is controlled by the main processor), can only influence the GPU itself. Having all the code running in the main processor be open has a large benefit, and gives a lot of control back to the user. It also allows for faster evolution of the platform (for instance: the whole EGLStream vs GBM debate would be less of an issue if the kernel code was open), and even completely replacing the main processor itself (for instance, does the proprietary NVIDIA driver have a RISC-V version of its blob?).