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The trouble with firmwareThe trouble with firmwarePosted Jan 10, 2011 14:48 UTC (Mon) by foom (subscriber, #14868)In reply to: The trouble with firmware by jwarnica Parent article: The trouble with firmware
I don't think the "war" is anywhere near won -- in fact I'd say just the opposite: it seems like it's in serious danger of being completely lost -- for users.
It's true that the tools *developers* depend on, for development, are overwhelmingly open source. However, the tools *users* depend on (that is: gmail, facebook, etc) are overwhelmingly closed source (even though they're often internally based heavily upon open source software).
And as more and more kinds of tools are moving to the web, that's true more and more, even for users of Linux, who previously had been using almost wholly open source software.
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The trouble with firmware Posted Jan 10, 2011 16:16 UTC (Mon) by jwarnica (subscriber, #27492) [Link]
Perhaps you are proving my unstated point. The number of fronts is expanding, and RMS is spending his time on a really very minor issue. He has really lost all perspective. Or rather, his perspective has remained the same, and once was mostly relevant.
He doesn't use the web (http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/) and I remember, I think from early Playstation 3 days, him admitting ignorances of the very concept of a gaming console. Not of Linux on the PS3, which might get a pass, but of being intentionally ignorant of the existence of non-general purpose electronic devices. He is simply out of touch with how regular people, and for that matter, regular geeks, use and interact with computers.
Basically all hardware uses microcode, and has for ever. To me, firmware is a minor, near irrelevant point. But even if I was to grant it was important, this strategy is the akin to plowing salt into your own fields and retreating from the land you have destroyed. Maybe we can shelf this point for a while, and worry about Facebook, and not OpenID, becoming the SSO/AuthN standard?
Political or spiritual advisor - maybe. Tactician, not at all.
The trouble with firmware Posted Jan 11, 2011 3:15 UTC (Tue) by quotemstr (subscriber, #45331) [Link] Simone de Beauvoir once said, "If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat."We're definitely experiencing a retrenchment of proprietary software, primarily in the form of "app stores" and Tivoized devices. This model has been lucrative, and is actually far more frightening than the boxed-software model that originally motivated RMS and inspires free software. Like any successful disruptive technology, the new proprietry software will grow to consume the market. It will be much more difficult for free software to gain a foothold when a few powerful vendors can not only forbid the distribution of software, but send existing programs on users' devices down the memory hole. It will be interesting to watch, if nothing else.
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