diff --git a/site/news/10.md b/site/news/10.md index 6b3aa1d..295cdbe 100644 --- a/site/news/10.md +++ b/site/news/10.md @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ % Leah Rowe % 12 December 2023 -I'm very proud of the work done in Libreboot, both my myself and by others +I'm very proud of the work done in Libreboot, both by myself and by others who I work with. Many people make Libreboot possible, be it direct contributors to the project, or the countless individuals and companies that work on all the upstream projects used in Libreboot, projects like coreboot. I'm *very* @@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ compiled ROM images, with source code, but there was no automated build system. The [build system](../docs/maintain/) evolved over time. The first releases of Libreboot supported only the ThinkPad X60. Later, T60 -supported and MacBook 2,1 support were added. This first year of the project +support and MacBook 2,1 support were added. This first year of the project was spent on building solid infrastructure, specifically documentation and an automated build system. The design of Libreboot revolves around scripts that automatically download, patch, configure and then compile various codebases, @@ -466,7 +466,7 @@ Libreboot 20160818, 20160902 and 20160907. Initial outcomes ------------- -Libreboot's popularity reached great heights duting this time, greatly expanding +Libreboot's popularity reached great heights during this time, greatly expanding and attracting many new developers. Joining GNU accelerated this further, though it came with certain drawbacks. @@ -653,7 +653,7 @@ which is something I also considered at the time, but that would have required maintaining a full coreboot repository, merging and overseeing a lot more patches from upstream, and diverging heavily. The way Libreboot's deblobbing worked was that it just deleted the blobs, and (by way of configuration) avoided -all boards except those that could bo booted entirely blob-free in the flash. +all boards except those that could be booted entirely blob-free in the flash. This method required far less maintenance - the original blob-free policy of Libreboot has been continued, as of 2023, in a new project I maintain called [Canoeboot](https://canoeboot.org/) - I'll have more to say about this, @@ -709,7 +709,7 @@ the event here: Also of note: Alyssa contributed to Libreboot a custom-written static site -generetor, converting its static HTML into Markdown files for documentation +generator, converting its static HTML into Markdown files for documentation on the website, then generating pages with Pandoc. This static site generator is included in the original Libreboot git repository, and it later became the basis for my own [Untitled Static Site Generator](https://untitled.vimuser.org/) @@ -783,10 +783,10 @@ I keep that repository there for archival, but it is no longer developed. I took over the project again in 2021, and scrapped the rewrite. More on this later in the article! -Andrew Robbins and Sebastien Gryzwna +Andrew Robbins and Sebastian Grzywna ------------------------------------ -Sebastien had joined the project during early 2016, advising about hardware +Sebastian had joined the project during early 2016, advising about hardware and he made quite a few useful code contributions at first. For example, he added support for 16MB IFD configurations in ich9gen. @@ -835,12 +835,12 @@ to it, hoping they'd prove me wrong. When I stepped down, the project had adapted a formalised "democratic" governance policy, implementing a horizontal hierarchy form of collective management. In practise, the former BDFL leadership under me was replaced -by basically the same thing, only it was two people; Andrew and Sebastien +by basically the same thing, only it was two people; Andrew and Sebastian called all the shots. They would regularly turn away code contributions, and -Sebastien in particular was often extremely rude to users on the IRC channel, +Sebastian in particular was often extremely rude to users on the IRC channel, acting in a very elitist manner. -Another general problem that Sebestian's leadership had was, that everything +Another general problem that Sebastian's leadership had was, that everything was always *later*. You want X new feature added? Wait until after next release. When's the next release? Soon. That account of events is quite reductive, but it more or less sums everything up perfectly. The 2017-2021 leadership under @@ -950,7 +950,7 @@ to take it over myself at some point; but it was too complex. I would later take over the Libreboot project. This is what I will cover, in the next sections. Paul stopped working on Libreboot after around -late 2017, leaving the work solely in the hands of Andrew and Sebastien. +late 2017, leaving the work solely in the hands of Andrew and Sebastian. late 2020: osboot ================ @@ -1039,7 +1039,7 @@ project again in late December 2020. I was rapidly working on adding all the Libreboot boards to osboot, and I would have just very quickly updated the deblob scripts; I acted on this desire too soon, running under the gun. -I actually did remove Sebastien and Andrew's access to the Libreboot +I actually did remove Sebastian and Andrew's access to the Libreboot infrastructure, for a few hours, before re-instating them - I wasn't ready for a Libreboot takeover yet. I needed more time to polish everything. Doing a tiny release for 1 customer, on 1 machine (the X230) was all well and good, but @@ -1048,7 +1048,7 @@ I decided that I had time to polish it more. March 2021 Libreboot takeover ----------------------------- -I wanted to get rid of Sebastien and Andrew for some time, at that point. Too +I wanted to get rid of Sebastian and Andrew for some time, at that point. Too many years had gone by, without any releases in Libreboot, and the Paper build system was only growing more complex; it was completely unworkable, and their time was up. They failed. An unwritten rule in the new constitution of 2017 @@ -1072,7 +1072,7 @@ project; I actually did make some temporary releases of osboot (tarballs, with ROM images and source code) in December 2020, but deleted them, because they weren't intended for general use. I was only testing everything. -Sebastien had a lot of knowledge about hardware, but did almost no coding +Sebastian had a lot of knowledge about hardware, but did almost no coding himself; he left that all to Andrew. And Andrew hadn't done any substantial work in over 6 months at that time. And the work that was done, was still far from complete. I anticipated that there would be years left before the Paper @@ -1145,7 +1145,7 @@ I had started in osboot, but at that time still complying with the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines, like 2016 Libreboot did. I did not use any of the work in the *Paper* re-write. I used precisely zero -lines of code from Sebastien and Andrew's work. I did it all myself. My decision +lines of code from Sebastian and Andrew's work. I did it all myself. My decision to take over the project had been vindicated. I did it for the users. People had been complaining for years about the lack of a release. The Libreboot project was dead. A joke to everyone, and it was no longer my fault; it was