diff --git a/site/news/MANIFEST b/site/news/MANIFEST index 5bf2130..bfea50e 100644 --- a/site/news/MANIFEST +++ b/site/news/MANIFEST @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ +gnuboot.md fam15h.md censored-libreboot20230710.md safety.md diff --git a/site/news/gnuboot.md b/site/news/gnuboot.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e3e230 --- /dev/null +++ b/site/news/gnuboot.md @@ -0,0 +1,162 @@ +% GNU Boot +% Leah Rowe +% 17 July 2023 + +People have been waiting for me to break the silence about this. I go on about +it on IRC. This article is intended to address it once and for all, offically. + +I waited so long, because until recently there really wasn't anything tangible +to talk about; why talk about vaporware? Why indeed. + +Introduction! +============ + +This doesn't need to be an overly long post, so it won't be. There is a *fork* +of Libreboot, named GNU Boot, which you can find here: + + +Unofficial GNU Boot 20230717 release +------------------------------------ + +If you want to skip the lecture, just read these first and re-visit this +page (the one you're reading now) afterwards for more context: + +* GNU Boot 20230717, unofficial release (produced by *me*): + - based on the + recent [Libreboot 20230625](libreboot20230625.md) release, but modified to + comply with their policy, as best as I could approximate. + +Or generally: - website, also unofficial. + +I call this unofficial fork *GNU Boot*, specifically because I want the work +to be used *by* the real GNU Boot project. It is also clearly marked unofficial, +on that website, so people don't get confused about that. + +These links, above, are for an *unofficial* fork of Libreboot that *I* have +done myself, proposed for re-use by the new GNU Boot project. I am *not* a +member of the GNU Boot project, but I do want to see it succeed. + +GNU Boot? What is that, you ask me? It is a fork of Libreboot by the GNU +project, but it currently does not have a website and does not have any +releases of its own. My intent is to *help them*, and they are free - encouraged - +to re-use my work, linked above. + +GNU forked Libreboot? +===================== + +Why? +---- + +They forked Libreboot, due to disagreement with Libreboot's [Binary Blob +Reduction Policy](policy.md). This is a pragmatic policy, enacted in November +2022, to increase the number of coreboot users by increasing the amount of +hardware supported in Libreboot. Libreboot's [Freedom +Status](../freedom-status.md) page describes in great detail, how that policy +is implemented - the last few Libreboot releases have *vastly* expanded the +list of hardware supported, which you can read [here](../docs/hardware/). + +I wish GNU Boot all the best success. Truly. Although I think their project is +entirely misguided (for reasons explained by modern Libreboot policy), I do +think there is value in it. It provides continuity for those who wish to use +something resembling the old Libreboot project; some context: + +osboot +------ + +Previously, another project +started by me named [osboot](https://web.archive.org/web/20220714144846/https://osboot.org/) +existed - osboot, created in December 2020, ran for just under two years as +a separate project, and it very much resembled what Libreboot is today. + +osboot was a fork of Libreboot, that I created *myself*, and maintained in +parallel to Libreboot. + +osboot/libreboot merge +---------------------- + +In November 2022, I *shut down* osboot's website and redirected it to the +Libreboot website, merging all of its documentation and additional code into +Libreboot. Libreboot *adopted* OSBoot policy, verbatim. The [Binary Blob +Reduction Policy](policy.md) *is* that policy - the [old Libreboot +policy](https://web.archive.org/web/20221107235850/https://libreboot.org/news/policy.html) +was declared obsolete, and abandoned - the main problem with it, and the problem +with GNU Boot today which is based on it, is that it limited the amount of +hardware that Libreboot could support. + +OSBoot was always the superior project, and Libreboot was practically dead, +so I saw nothing to lose and just did it. I merged them together. + +So why talk about GNU Boot? +=========================== + +Ordinarily, I would ignore other projects; it's not that I'm bothered by them, +it's just that I have Libreboot, which pleases me, and therefore I have no need +to worry about the others. They can sort themselves out. I work collaboratively +with a few other coreboot distros; for example, I sometimes provide advice or +ideas to the [Heads](https://osresearch.net/) project (a very interesting +project, superior to Libreboot in many ways). I recently helped them by offering +to host tarballs for them, that they use in their build system. + +But that's just the problem: when GNU Boot first launched, as a *hostile fork* +of Libreboot (at domain name `libreboot.at`), I observed: their code repository +was based on Libreboot from late 2022, and their website based on Libreboot in +late 2021. Their same-named Libreboot site was announced during LibrePlanet +2023, by this video: + - +their speaker is Denis Carikli, an early contributor to Libreboot, who you can +read about here: . Denis is one +of the founders of that project. + +Well, now they are calling themselves *GNU Boot*, and it is indeed GNU, but it +still has the same problem as of *today*: still based on very old Libreboot, +and they don't *even* have a website. According to Savannah, GNU Boot was +created on 11 June 2023. Yet no real development, in over a month since then. + +I have this itch in the back of my mind, that says: if you're going to do +something, you should *do it*. When someone expresses disagreement with what +I say, I can respect it if the it's more than just words. Which is precisely +what they have been. + +I value *technical excellence*. + +So *why talk about it??* +--------------------- + +Simple: I've decided that I want to **help them**. Refer to the links above, in +the early section of this article. I decided recently that I'd simply make a +release *for them*, exactly to their specifications (GNU Free System +Distribution Guidelines), talking favourably about FSF/GNU, and so on. I'm in +a position to *do it* (thus scratching the itch), so why not? + +The most remarkable thing of all is this: in December 2022 is when I first +learned of their supposed effort. They tried to poach several Libreboot developers +behind my back, +but none of them were interested it seems, and one of them leaked the existence +of their effort to me. I knew *three months* before they announced that they +were going to announce something, and I reliably predicted it'd be at LibrePlanet. + +The most absurd thing of that is: why did they not contact *me*? + +The GNU people should have simply contacted me from the start. I *would* have +helped them. I did Libreboot releases under their policies for *years*, and I +know what I'm doing. Ideology aside, I enjoy fun technical challenges; I have a +wide depth of knowledge and expertise. *I offer it now*, as I have today, and +will continue to do so. I offer my *support*, in service to it, even if I would +personally never use nor recommend their project. One of the purposes of today's +article is simply to tell people they exist, because I hope maybe they'll get +more devs. They use the same build system as Libreboot, so Libreboot could even +merge a lot of any actual code/ideas that they produce (and they can merge our +work - *and I want them to do that*). + +There were/are more things to talk about, but I'm not really interested in +writing more. Free as in freedom? Libreboot is a free software project, yet +their propaganda says otherwise. + +GNU Boot is an [inferior](../policy.md#problems-with-fsdg) free software +project, and Libreboot still provides the same blob-free configurations on +mainboards when that is possible, so GNU Boot is also a *superfluous* project, +just as Libreboot was before I merged osboot with it, but I digress. + +What more is there to say? + +Happy hacking!