-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 On 06/12/2013 01:04 PM, Harry Prevor wrote: > I hate to break it to you guys, but considering we don't even have > a 100% free *computer* yet, we're still a far way away from being > able to say a phone is completely free. In fact, I'll go ahead and > claim that it's impossible to achieve simply based upon the fact > that nobody has done it yet. I'd love to be proven wrong though. > > I feel like the main reason why there hasn't been much success in > "completely free" recently is because nobody understands what it > really means. Let's break it down for a moment: > > 1. Assume 50% of people in the world know what software is. 2. > Assume 5% of those people actually care whether or not their > software is proprietary or "open source". 3. Assume 5% of those > people want their software to be truly free and not just "open > source". 4. Assume 5% of those people aren't fooled by products > like Android (not AOSP, but modified Android on phones) that almost > always contains blobs and added proprietary software from OEMs. 5. > Assume 5% of those people know that Linux isn't actually free -- it > contains tons of binary blobs and firmware. 6. Assume 5% of those > people want all of their software to be free. 7. Assume 5% of those > people aren't satisfied with the freedom of their current setup. 8. > Assume 5% of those people know about and are willing to fork over > the $700 to buy a Lemote Yeeloong. 9. Assume 5% of those people > know that even the Lemote Yeeloong isn't truly free due to nonfree > embedded controller firmware and nonfree firmware on the HDD. 10. > Assume 5% of those people want to do something about it. > > Well, right there we have .000000000097% of the world's > population. Assuming 7 billion people in the world, that's about > half of half of half of one person. No wonder nobody's done it > yet. > *** You simply proved that your assumptions are wrong.
- From 2. to 3., I would say you keep more than 50%, and among those, I'd say almost all are not fooled by Android, and 100% know the difference between Linux and Linux-Libre. 6 is a repetition of 3, so it's irrelevant. 7 is another take at 3. 8 seems irrelevant to me because, as you said per 9., the Lemote is not truly free. 8 would be about throwing money at Qi Hardware, to buy a Ben Nanonote, or a MilkyMist One. That would certainly help changing the face of free hardware when people start to realize that buying from the inventors fuels their developments. Finally, I think you underestimate the number of people who actually "want to do something about it." It would be more accurate to add up the number of people participating in Qi, OpenPhoenux, MilkyMist, Replicant, H-Node, etc. It might be around 1000, but certainly not zero. I strongly agree with Patrick that when we realize that we can pool resources to own labs, factories, chip fabs, etc., we're a step further on the way to hardware freedom. The issue is convincing a critical mass of people that it's doable. Capitalism is very good at convincing few rich people that they will get more than they put: money for money is easy to understand. But when it concerns social capital, the deal is way more difficult to compute. See how waste management is not a matter of ecology, but a profitable deal that doesn't help much recycling--and when it does, it's because there's profit made out of a "free" resource (people even pay to get rid of their waste.) == hk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Icedove - http://www.enigmail.net/ iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJRyyWnAAoJEEgGw2P8GJg9XW4QAKQ7anXQcNLC92cQlWcL0pZC 6l91yayMHa4pGu/qrhbL6/qLxTNX96EWApFVHT0uT/JgPB0MpQLuQubKQZTe75VH m3WCdhH6H3a9m1RyA/2YFvTQInvlMz7uwVtU+c4lB225I8OdjqFCjU0T9s17JXU2 xpDICeNKgvioLErdfX8HTg1SGMpN2c8W+X+JS3yX+jjL0G4tW+pIFfkb9ZFbRohK as/xrtInIrJPTakskBHfvgtpWJOhYBzhD2Bgdt4xrLsEaHA27spY454aUHF2XsL5 DHq4/K3WQgFEYO3AfOVhk2V72O/akpHfODVjc2GKH4SC4AlFwD2PP7biy4dDEPCG 1jCtLZqnvLvUeGqCkhGnXRcSjPt6Q/2fBngZ6My1ZZlJNXcByyYZONF7/Hy4jXSG +oRjLxknnPhJVv76jBMWPU4TOGtzElphseNe178bmfkqJgUrCyLETE0ed41h9cgx 4uVmvHqHSY4Umbd5UjbxLtEEH4NOTQ9orf6PPKgXv8qODWQB06WGsxgC3Adk27BJ ME8w3t27XgxW8ggdnShaZ0AxM2pFChhsPrjmlYgXLMzd2mEfaAicEuIvBVPxaAcN 5XMpxB3BNP0a2SxbKrRXOjt+akOoYH0JkWpUgd2/XO67rMMydUBOho4u4qFsVFmB L17UGbcICGZmdiQLOb6o =Uu7q -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
