On Sun, 15 Mar 2020 15:36:45 +0100
[email protected] wrote:

> Where does software start and firmware end? Isn't the
> bootloader/BIOS/UEFI also just a piece of software?

I would refer to this statement[0] given by the GNU Project:

   "Any software that can be replaced by someone else, the user must be
   empowered to replace."

[0]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/loyal-computers.html

And more globally, we could refer to that statement[1]:

   "A computer can have modifiable preinstalled firmware and microcode
   at lower levels. It can also have code in true read-only memory. We
   decided to ignore these programs in our certification criteria
   today, because otherwise no computer could comply, and because
   firmware that is not normally changed is ethically equivalent to
   circuits. So our certification criteria cover only the code that
   runs on the computer's main processor and is not in true read-only
   memory. When and as free software becomes possible for other levels
   of processing, we will require free software at those levels too."

[1]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/applying-free-sw-criteria

-- 
Félicien Pillot
2C7C ACC0 FBDB ADBA E7BC  50D9 043C D143 6C87 9372
[email protected] - [email protected]

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