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Semi-related, but TIL the Raspberry Pi Foundation enabling large corporate customers to secure-boot lock the Pis they're embedding in their juice dispensers and

Semi-related, but TIL the Raspberry Pi Foundation enabling large corporate customers to secure-boot lock the Pis they're embedding in their juice dispensers and whatnot. Nothing like being a supposed open source darling and helping corporations deny people the right to use hardware they purchase, the way they want to - and helping contribute to e-waste, because there will be millions of Pis that nobody can use for anything other than the IoT banana dispenser they were integrated into...

jonatron 2y ago
I'm not sure Raspberry Pi are to blame. Broadcom insist on closed source binary blobs, and their chip has e-fuses built in.
- regularfry 2y ago
  I think it is reasonable to criticise them for being quite so tightly tied to Broadcom, though. That's an artefact of the local ecosystem they're in, and it's arguable that the pi wouldn't exist at the price point it does without such a close tie, but live by the sword, die by the sword...
im3w1l 2y ago
There are legitimate reasons for such a thing though, I think. Like I don't want my juice dispenser to do general purpose computation. I don't want it to be capable of web surfing. Ideally you would do that by building it out of simple mechanical components, but if taking smart components and dumbing them down is cheaper then that sounds fine too.
nsteel 2y ago
> Nothing like being a supposed open source darling They've never claimed to be an open-source company. It's unfair to judge a company (or charity) against your own ideas of what they stand for. Some of their software is open source and some is not. Some of their hardware is open (2040), most is not.
Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago
Can you say more about where you found this information? I didn’t see it in the OP. I think rpi has made some compromises to advance business viability, which feeds their more altruistic endeavours.
- jonatron 2y ago
  This PDF https://pip.raspberrypi.com/categories/685-whitepapers-app-notes/documents/RP-004651-WP/Raspberry-Pi-4-Boot-Security.pdf https://pip.raspberrypi.com/categories/685-whitepapers-app-n...

jonatron 2y ago

I'm not sure Raspberry Pi are to blame. Broadcom insist on closed source binary blobs, and their chip has e-fuses built in.

regularfry 2y ago
I think it is reasonable to criticise them for being quite so tightly tied to Broadcom, though. That's an artefact of the local ecosystem they're in, and it's arguable that the pi wouldn't exist at the price point it does without such a close tie, but live by the sword, die by the sword...

im3w1l 2y ago

There are legitimate reasons for such a thing though, I think. Like I don't want my juice dispenser to do general purpose computation. I don't want it to be capable of web surfing. Ideally you would do that by building it out of simple mechanical components, but if taking smart components and dumbing them down is cheaper then that sounds fine too.

nsteel 2y ago

> Nothing like being a supposed open source darling They've never claimed to be an open-source company. It's unfair to judge a company (or charity) against your own ideas of what they stand for. Some of their software is open source and some is not. Some of their hardware is open (2040), most is not.

Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago

Can you say more about where you found this information? I didn’t see it in the OP. I think rpi has made some compromises to advance business viability, which feeds their more altruistic endeavours.

jonatron 2y ago
This PDF https://pip.raspberrypi.com/categories/685-whitepapers-app-notes/documents/RP-004651-WP/Raspberry-Pi-4-Boot-Security.pdf https://pip.raspberrypi.com/categories/685-whitepapers-app-n...