>Fabio Pesari <[email protected]> writes:
> That's why I say we should build our computers from hardware components > with libre designs. > > I think reverse engineering can be a waste of time, if what it achieves > is being able to run free software on a single outdated, underpowered > and out-of-production device after many months of research. I agree with you, but there are "technical limits". Designing and creating a new hardware is more difficult than write a software, and it requires too many resources. > That's my main criticism of Libreboot. Instead of freeing old boards, > the community should focus on building its own. Yes, that's expensive > and needs experts and it's more about hardware than software, but there > is no "Free Hardware Foundation" and the free software community should > be able to fund its own research just like corporations do. And what about CPUs? If you want to use x86 ISA you have to ask for a license. The same for ARM. So? MIPS? Then you have to modify a lot of programs who were (and are, right now) built for x86. > Reverse engineering in the future will only become harder, thanks to > cryptography and DRM, and more and more people won't be able to switch > to a free GNU/Linux distro simply because they'd have to throw out their > machines. Reverse Engineering will become almost impossible, 'cause Intel (and others) will introduce some kind of "wall" which will block you to read the instructions your own CPU is executing. -- Giuseppe Molica - Collaborator at www.lupokkio.it "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" - Juvenal
