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I agree with the spirit of your post, and that AMD is probably the lesser evil, but it's worth noting they "just" moved the proprietary bits into a firmware blo
by opan 1y ago
I agree with the spirit of your post, and that AMD is probably the lesser evil, but it's worth noting they "just" moved the proprietary bits into a firmware blob. It's still similarly proprietary but due to the kernel being pretty open to such blobs, it's a problem invisible to most users. You'd have to use linux-libre to get a feel for how bad things really are. You can't really use any modern GPUs with it.
- jasomill 1y agoI understand the sentiment, but I don't see how devices with proprietary firmware stored in ROM or NVRAM are any more free or open than devices that require proprietary firmware loaded at boot. And it looks like Linux-Libre also opposes CPU microcode updates[1], as if bugged factory microcode with known security vulnerabilities is any less non-free than fixed microcode. Recommending an alternative architecture that uses non-proprietary microcode I can understand; this I cannot. [1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Linux-Libre-4.16-Released https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Linux-Libre-4.16-Released
- IlikeKitties 1y agoThat honestly makes little difference to me. There's no useful computer out there that isn't a bunch of proprietary blobs to interact with proprietary hardware. Wish there was, but if it's practically indistinguishable from just having those blobs burned into the hardware directly instead of being injected on boot it's not perfect but still a pretty good situation. I remember when running linux on your computer at all was hit or miss, these days i can go to lenovo and buy a thinkpad with ubuntu preinstalled and know that it will just work.