Proprietary drivers and firmware are really two separate issues. Proprietary drivers usually are the result of licensed code that can't be open sourced or IP c

Proprietary drivers and firmware are really two separate issues. Proprietary drivers usually are the result of licensed code that can't be open sourced or IP concerns (giving away the "secret sauce", patent worries, etc). Provided it can't be updated behind your back, I don't see proprietary firmware as particularly harmful unto itself -- it'd be nice if it were open and make the device less of a black box, but from the POV of the driver or user, there's not really much difference between a device with an embedded CPU running some firmware and a device implementing the same functionality in the asic.