Ensuring freedom, one blob at a time
by Zoë Kooyman <https://www.fsf.org/author/zoe> — Published on
17/06/2026 10:50
https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2026/summer/ensuring-freedom-one-blob-at-a-time
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded to support the work of
the GNU Project <https://www.gnu.org/>, and this is still proudly one of
our core responsibilities. The GNU Project has delivered some of the
most important software used globally, and it is free as in freedom
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>. It is a symbol and source
of inspiration for those of us who advocate for software freedom. It has
been part of the long-lived success of the FSF and the free software
philosophy that when we present our convictions, we are able to point to
pragmatic implementations of the issues we advocate for. The FSF has a
long history of taking action and delivering the software we want to
see. This is still true today, and we will not stop.
At the end of 2025, the FSF launched LibrePhone
<https://librephone.fsf.org/>, a project that works on closing the last
gaps towards free mobile phone computing
<https://librephone.fsf.org/freedom>. LibrePhone's goal is to better
understand and reverse-engineer the nonfree blobs
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_blob> used by a great majority of
(if not all) SoCs (system on a chip) designs available today. We started
with researching <https://librephone.fsf.org/site/files/> the
proprietary files in Android phones supported by the Lineage
<https://wiki.lineageos.org/> project, an Android-based volunteer-led
mobile phone operating system with much free software already in it. Our
current, primary focus is on the radio blobs that control WiFi,
Bluetooth, NFC, and cellular communications. The software freedom issues
with mobile computing
<https://www.fsf.org/working-together/next-steps/free-software-phones>
have been around for a long time, with the most challenging issue being
the baseband/modem firmware that relies heavily on proprietary software.
This creates a technical and legal maze that is nearly impossible to
break free from, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop working to
create free systems. It certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't liberate the
software that we know /can/ be free software.
Now, half a year into this project, lead developer Rob Savoye has
extracted firmware from over 200 Lineage install packages, processed
85GB of files, and imported the results of these analyses into a
PostgreSQL <https://www.postgresql.org/> database for [cross-device
comparison. By focusing on one device
<https://librephone.fsf.org/hardware/fairphone6>, we envisioned we would
have the best opportunity to work towards a truly libre phone that could
serve as an example. This was done to get a feel for which blobs are the
most common, identify the best blobs for reverse engineering, and select
the best initial development device for reverse engineering
<https://librephone.fsf.org/site/tools/>. We found
<https://librephone.fsf.org/site/comparing/> instead, among other
things, that much of the software and blobs we need to work through are
shared across multiple devices; this means even greater strides for
mobile phone freedom.
Freeing even just one aspect of mobile phone computing is a huge task,
and the work on LibrePhone will take a long time, but so was creating a
fully free OS in 1983 <https://www.gnu.org/>. Look where we are forty
years after the FSF's founding! Sometimes it feels like so much is
bending towards the will of power and finance in technology that it can
be hard to think positively about the future of software freedom. We get
buried every day in news about the threats to copylefted software by
large language models
<https://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-is-working-on-freedom-in-machine-learning-applications>,
increased vendor lock-ins
<https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/fcc-says-ban-on-foreign-made-routers-includes-portable-wi-fi-hotspots/>,
and so-called "cloud
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html>"
computing. We never stop finding new license violations
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2026-anthropic-settlement> or
absurd privacy violations
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2026-ring-offers-mass-surveillance>,
and the rights related to ownership
<https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/your-digital-life-is-not-yours> and
repair of our technology <https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/fight-to-repair>
are in need of stronger lines of defense. The FSF is working hard on all
those aspects threatening our digital rights, but in the meantime, we
are putting our money where our mouth is, and continuing to develop
software for freedom. As insurmountable as it may seem at times, every
blob we manage to free up will be progress. The FSF has proven time and
time again that it can bring the free software philosophy
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html> to life, not just by
advocating for it, but by making it so.
In 2026, free software runs two-thirds
<https://www.networkworld.com/article/964836/linux-then-and-why-you-should-learn-it-now.html>
of the servers powering the internet, it has 100% market share of the
top 500 supercomputers
<https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-500-of-the-worlds-fastest-supercomputers-now-run-linux-exclusive/>,
and 98% of all codebases
<https://ia801906.us.archive.org/7/items/rep-ossra-2021/rep-ossra-2021.pdf>
contain free software. Tens of millions of individuals also run free
software on their personal devices, and many millions more could.
Consider all this success, all these enormous accomplishments of free
software powering the world's technology, and you'll find that the four
freedoms we advocate for — to run, modify, copy, and share software —
already have a place in our daily lives. The possibilities of what we
can do together are often wildly underestimated or stymied by those who
fear them.
Much like with the start of the GNU Project in 1983, we have set out on
a journey that we know is a massive undertaking, but given much of our
computing is done on mobile phones these days, it is a necessary
project. All we need is time, financial support
<https://my.fsf.org/donate?mtm_campaign=summer26&mtm_source=bulletinm>
to keep going, volunteers
<https://www.fsf.org/volunteer?mtm_campaign=summer26&mtm_source=bulletinm>,
and our free software spirit. Let's take matters into our own hands and
secure freedom, one blob at a time.
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