Post #1871656

2026-04-29 12:54 UTC

And, about my last toot: having a free firmware matters, *a lot*. From security to privacy, and to avoid kernel panics, even under not totally free operating systems as #openbsd (atheros ath9k supported wireless devices). Dear Dave Thompson, if your sole issue it&#39;s the firmware, why is #nonguix full of software (non firmware) crap? Do we really need these: - MakeMKV - Nvidia GL libraries - Nvidia utilities - Electron - Google Chrome - Genesis Plus GX - Steam - Zoom - Allegro Common Lisp (SBCL works you know and it&#39;s #FLOSS) - Zotero - Obsidian - Nvidia AI libraries - Anydesk - Unrar And a few more, clojure and docker/k8s related.

Replies (3)

@thedaemon@snac.9front.club 2026-04-29 13:05

What's wrong with Genesis Plus GX?

Open ##2012943
@jschwart@mas.to 2026-04-29 19:12

@anthk quite a bit of firmware is non-free even when a typical system with Linux-libre, it's just read from a ROM instead of uploaded by a driver into the chip's memory upon initialization. The big issue with using random firmware blobs is that people become accustomed to their OS updates delivering new versions of random blobs and there's no insight or control in what's going on there. If we all use a time-tested blob from many years ago, it is the same as dealing with a ROM blob.

Open ##2012948
@anthk@neopaquita.es 2026-05-01 08:21

@jschwart Yeah, and the system somehow will often run faster and more stable, at least in my case with Linux libre (I used a plugged kbd/mouse) against a propietary Linux kernel. I maybe lost some GPU vaapi stuff (I didn't look) but as I don't have 4k needs 1080p video from the couch was pretty much perfect with libre iGPU drivers for Intel.

Open ##2012953