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Stallman's Legacy Halts At Hardware (hackaday.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the keep-pushing-until-it-moves dept.

szczys writes: To say Richard Stallman had a profound effect on free software is not a bold enough statement. The power of the GPL, and his advocacy for software freedom have changed the world. But there is one frontier that has yet to hear this gospel. These days, no hardware is an island. Almost every type of electronics we use is running some type of code, and in almost every case some of that code is secret in more ways than one. From beefy processors to graphics controllers, boot ROMs and binary blobs run in the silicon we base our systems upon. The code is not published and in the rare case that you are able to view the source it is only under strict NDA. This represents one of the biggest barriers to true open hardware.

3 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2, Informative

    The biggest barrier to true open hardware is the fact someone has to pay for a tangible good, and that tangible good - hardware - is designed for a specific purpose. The BIOS and bootloaders and such are immaterial, and do not limit you from using a piece of silicon as you desire. The block is silicon that does what you want to do in the first place. And that carries with it costs beyond just software creation.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  2. Stallman's open-source-everwhere view blinds him by Da+w00t · · Score: 5, Informative

    Source: e-mail exchange with him, based on my shmoocon presentation on hacking USB flash drives.

    In short: I said there's no way you can have open source firmware for a proprietary undocumented ASIC, that has to keep track with new developments in flash memory every 3 months.

    He want on to ask if there was a way to buy a USB flash drive that wasn't field-reprogrammable, or to "convince a company to make USBs [sic] that way". I'm not aware of any, and it's impossible as-is to A) ask a vendor "What chips are you using?" and B) have the vendor use the same controller/flash chips on the same device.

    Dude wouldn't listen, and I gave up trying to educate him.

    --

    da w00t. mtfnpy?
  3. Re:Why are so many moving away from the GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Uhhh...no, it's not the most popular:
    https://www.blackducksoftware.com/resources/data/top-20-open-source-licenses

    And no, it's not growing:
    http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/wp/files/2015/02/figure2.png