So if you have a product that needs a ton of proprietary software to run, RMS will go berserk if you run that software on the CPU, but if you shift it to run on another processor in the product and make sure users can’t change it then all is good, have a RYF certification. This does not make sense. Maybe it made sense 30 years ago.
If you’re stallman, proprietary firmware isn’t bad so long as it’s suitably hidden so it can’t offend your sensibilities. So pretend CPU microcode updates don’t exist and add secondary processors to deal with blobs (purism). Does ensuring users cannot upgrade firmware make them more free?
I agree about the eye rolling absurdity there. But I also suspect stuff like the opening up of various bits of RaspberryPi firmware blobs wouldn’t have happened without people who share his philosophy there. Same with hardware (and software) like Bunnie Huangs Precursor, a piece of as close as practically fully upon source hardware, where the cpu is implemented as an open source FPGA, and the Xous OS for it is written ground up in Rust. That’s a hell of a complex project, and a fascinating , that in my opinion would probably never have been worth anyones time to even start on, if they didn’t share (and possibly exceed) some of Stallman’s philosophical absurdity.
Like I said, I acknowledge the “ extreme fringe wing nut GPL virality advocating loudmouths” and appreciate their existence, if only as a balance to the “make Larry Ellison infinitely rich and powerful” kind of alternatives.
The FSF does not care about proprietary firmware, provided that the firmware “installation is not intended after the user obtains the product.”
https://ryf.fsf.org/about/criteria
So if you have a product that needs a ton of proprietary software to run, RMS will go berserk if you run that software on the CPU, but if you shift it to run on another processor in the product and make sure users can’t change it then all is good, have a RYF certification. This does not make sense. Maybe it made sense 30 years ago.
If you’re stallman, proprietary firmware isn’t bad so long as it’s suitably hidden so it can’t offend your sensibilities. So pretend CPU microcode updates don’t exist and add secondary processors to deal with blobs (purism). Does ensuring users cannot upgrade firmware make them more free?