On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 09:16:49PM -0800, Jason Self wrote: > Alexandre Oliva <[email protected]> wrote .. > > It certainly sounds odd. But, honestly, right now I'm more > > concerned that updates for PureOS seem to have been published in a > > non-free repo. Specifically, non-free microcode for CPUs affected > > by Spectre. Surely we don't mean to endorse distros that do that, > > do we? Purism's messaging seems to attempt to distance their new > > nonfree repos and dists from PureOS, but... I fail to see the > > difference between that and what Debian does. But then, I haven't > > looked very closely. Am I missing something? > > > > https://puri.sm/posts/purism-patches-meltdown-and-spectre-variant-2-both-included-in-all-new-librem-laptops/ > > https://deb.puri.sm/pureos/dists/purism-nonfree/> > > https://deb.puri.sm/pureos/pool/non-free/i/intel-microcode/>> > > Thoughts? > > It seems similar in some ways and dissimilar in others. > > My understanding is that the challenge with Debian's non-free stuff > is "the repository is hosted on many of the project's main servers, > and people can readily find these nonfree packages by browsing > Debian's online package database and its wiki." (To quote from the > common distros page.) > > Purism seems to avoid at least some of this this by having it on a > different domain, and I don't seem to find information at > http://pureos.net about installing the > proprietary software.
That is good that there is no information. Free GNU operating system can be free on one domain while other domain selling laptops requiring some proprietary software. Then again, such laptop sales shall not be promoted as having operating system endorsed by FSF if such is not fully free. But that is all theoretical statement. Intel processors already contain inside Intel Management Engine, isn't that modified MINIX inside? That is proprietary software within the CPU. It means there is no current solution to have Intel Management Engine as free software, it further means that majority of Intel run computers are running non-free software on the CPU itself. The question is does the update of the Intel Management Engine constitute part of the operating system or not? If such update is distributed by the operating system, then is the distribution free? Or shall such update be ignored, as it is maybe not part of the operating system? Even those computers using Libreboot are still using the Intel Management Engine. That is different branch of the fight for privacy. Best would be replacing Intel with free CPU. But does it exist? Jean Louis
