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policy: make fsdg section flow better 

move the censorship argument to the first sections

generally just be clearer

Signed-off-by: Leah Rowe <leah@libreboot.org>
c20230710
Leah Rowe 2023-07-05 10:51:39 +01:00
parent 99f06fe9a7
commit 3eff58ec05
1 changed files with 14 additions and 10 deletions
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24
site/news/policy.md
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@ -306,7 +306,16 @@ firmware blobs are required for certain hardware to work correctly.
The FSDG criteria is separate from RYF, but has similar problems. FSDG is
what the FSF-endorsed GNU+Linux distros comply with. Basically, it bans
all proprietary software, including device firmware. This may seem noble, but
it's extremely problematic in the context of firmware. Food for thought:
it's extremely problematic in the context of firmware.
*Banning* linux-firmware specifically is a threat to freedom in the long term,
because new users of GNU+Linux might be discouraged from using the OS if their
hardware doesn't work. You might say: just buy new hardware! This is often not
possible for users, and the user might not have the skill to reverse engineer
it either. **Banning such firmware constitutes *censorship*, in the name of
freedom, but all it does is reduce freedom of choice; somebody else has already
made that decision for you, *against* you.** You should not use linux-libre at
all. Some wisdom:
* Excluding firmware blobs in the linux kernel is *bad*. Proprietary firmware
is *also bad*. Including them is a wiser choice, if strong education is also
@ -324,7 +333,9 @@ it's extremely problematic in the context of firmware. Food for thought:
to hide the firmware instead, making actual (software) freedom less likely!*
Besides this, FSDG seems OK. Any libre operating system should ideally not
have proprietary *drivers* or *applications*.
have proprietary *drivers* or *applications*. Libreboot *previously* adhered
to FSDG, but now takes a more pragmatic approach when it comes to things like
CPU microcode or *EC firmware*.
Hardware manufacturers like to shove everything into firmware because their
product is often poorly designed, so they later want to provide workarounds in
@ -358,14 +369,7 @@ their `fw_update` program which you can read about here:
<https://man.openbsd.org/fw_update>
*Banning* linux-firmware specifically is a threat to freedom in the long term,
because new users of GNU+Linux might be discouraged from using the OS if their
hardware doesn't work. You might say: just buy new hardware! This is often not
possible for users, and the user might not have the skill to reverse engineer
it either. Banning such firmware constitutes *censorship*, in the name of
freedom, but all it does is reduce freedom of choice; somebody else has already
made that decision for you, *against* you. You should not use linux-libre at
all.
OpenBSD is great.
More detailed insight about microcode
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