Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Stallman Pushes For Free BIOS

Posted by simoniker on from the freedom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "One key area that Richard Stallman, GNU project founder, hopes to develop is an OSS-based BIOS. But his work has been hindered by PC manufacturers who haven't been receptive to the idea. Stallman told Builder AU that: 'we're looking for companies willing to cooperate with the community in this way.' On challenges facing developers today, Stallman said the worst was the proliferation of laws that explicitly ban free software for certain jobs."

5 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Benevolent dictators by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    What an OSS BIOS project need is a benevolent dictator who knows how to program, not visionary men.

  2. If you're going to troll, at least learn English? by JessLeah · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "Plugging that PCI card in violates the GPL because it is (sic) option ROM creates a derived work with GNU BIOS!!"

    Me is troll. Me am speaky English good.

    --
    Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
  3. Re:If you're going to nitpick, at least learn Lati by JessLeah · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Thank you for correcting me. I'll be more precise in the future.

    (You aren't an idiot if you make mistakes in your writing. You're an idiot if you make mistakes in your writing, you get corrected, and you knowingly keep making the same mistakes.)

    --
    Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
  4. Re:The momentum is pushing him away... by ghum · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    >Isn't there a Linux/BIOS project underway?
    That is GNU/Linux/BIOS, holy RMS!

  5. Re:Bah by Zeinfeld · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    Do you mean that manufacturers would be required to implement DRM? But so what? Just because it's there, doesn't mean you are forced to use it.

    DRM is not going to be any more successful on Windows than it has been in any other context. The problem is that its a break once run anywhere problem. I am not rushing out to buy a HDTV without broadcast flag implementation because I know that the scheme will be as leaky as a sieve.

    Do you mean that manufacturers would be required to implement a compulsory form of DRM that stopped unsigned OSs from booting? That's also absurd. The big corporate interests behind Linux would never let that happen.

    I think its a control issue, people don't want to feel that their PC is being controlled by someone else. But the real advantage of trusted computing is to make it so that you can boot a machine and be certain that it is not running any type of trojan or malware.

    I don't think that this is why RMS wants an OSS BIOS, he wants it on religious grounds.

    --
    Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
    Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/