Le mercredi 29 juillet 2015 à 02:39 -0400, Bob Summerwill a écrit : > One year on ... Tizen has proven to be a real disappointment in > practice. The open governance has not come to fruition, and there is > no real community.
Right. I haven't seen any significant development in there either. > Sales are good, though, and I think there is still a hope that Tizen > can become the #3 mobile platform, and one with better "genetics" than > Android. If the open governance is not addressed, though, that will > be of little benefit to GNU/Linux mobile hackers. Well, that's a surprise, I haven't seen any of those around, but maybe they'll hit western markets later. > My own primary focus has shifted to Sailfish OS, with an eye on Ubuntu > Touch, Firefox OS and the recently announced Plasma Mobile, all of > which now look a better fit than Tizen for scratching my own "itch": I wouldn't count on Sailfish OS too much, it still has lots of proprietary parts and Jolla apparently doesn't have issues with making the most basic user applications proprietary. I wouldn't expect their systemto be any kind of game changer when it comes to software freedom. Nothing has changed recently regarding Firefox OS and Ubuntu Touch. Plasma Mobile looks more like a high-level interface and there are few details about it at this point. I'll wait and see to find out how it deals with low-level drivers. If you have information on that, I'd be glad to learn about it. > As you so kindly explained to my more naive self a year back, though, > the harder issues still remain: > > 1. Proprietary baseband processor (which is perhaps practically > unsolvable due to the complexity of the standards, and is better > ignored, with the hope of future ubiquitous mesh networking for most > urban users) I'm not sure it's "better ignored", but we should indeed focus our work on other areas where we have an actual chance at making a change. This is still an issue and I think it's of the utmost importance to inform people about it and make sure that users are aware of it when they decide to use a mobile phone. > 2. Binary blobs for drivers, especially for GPU drivers. Efforts > underway on the Linux desktop front - Freedreno, Noveau, Lima. > Hybris provides a pragmatic bridge to get mobile Linux OSes working on > a wide range of hardware, but at the cost of side-stepping this hard > issue. Are any people working on bringing these free drivers to > mobile, do you know? Well, libhybris has always been a way of working around the problems. It doesn't solve anything. I have only seen people give up on reverse engineering projects because it was technically easier to use libhybris. Thus, I'm not hopeful to see things go the other way round. > 3. Secure bootloaders, root access, "stores". I'm working on freeing bootloaders those days, and other low-level things. I think it's a valuable contribution to bring more freedom to mobile devices and embedded devices in general. > Am I missing more? Well, I maintain an comprehensive overview of what's wrong with those devices (that is, assuming a free system like Replicant) at: https://www.replicant.us/freedom-privacy-security-issues.php > Best wishes ... > Thanks, to you as well. I'd be happy to know if you find out about interesting development on those topics in the future! > On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 9:33 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > http://redmine.replicant.us/boards/33/topics/5193?r=5745#message-5745 > Paul Kocialkowski > > > With Tizen being close to "just another distro", it becomes > trivial for anybody in the existing desktop GNU/Linux world to > bring their weight over to mobile, because mobile is where all > of the action is in computing now. > > I hope you're right and the technical proximity between Tizen > and other GNU/Linux distros will make it easier to have a > strong community of developers working on the core issues of > the system, the proprietary hardware abstraction libraries. > > > Around the world, phones are going to be the first computers > that many people have. > > I always makes me very sad to hear such claims. Tablets and > phones are mostly tool to consume information and content, not > to produce any. Have you tried writing a blog post from your > tablet or your phone? Traditional computers are much more > usable to create content, so I hope they survive despite your > sayings. I don't want computers to be yet another way to make > people passive consumers while they're an opportunity to be > the exact opposite! > > > Weight of numbers raises the importance of getting solutions > to the burning HAL, bootloader and free hardware issues. > > Right. As much as I find phones and tablets useless, I figured > that we might as well have them running free software if > people are going to use them. > > > I am an optimist. You have to be. Otherwise why bother? > > Well, it's a matter of carefully deciding on which task to > spend your time when you want to achieve a goal. If the goal > is software freedom on mobile devices, I don't think Tizen > will be so much of an asset (but hopefully, I'm wrong), so I'm > not so optimistic about it. > > > And maybe that is where we are different? I truly care about > broad adoption, and would prefer that huge numbers of people > had something which is more free than they currently have, > even if it isn't perfect. That is a bridge to freedom. With > regard to search engines, perhaps 99.9% of people use them all > the time, me included. Many of those people are unaware what > they are "selling" in doing so. I am aware and use them > anyway. They are just way too useful for me not to use them. > > What's the point of having many people use free software if > they don't know the ethical motivations behind it? So many > people have Android devices which run free software for a big > part, but only a fraction of them are aware of the stakes of > free software and really care. What did having a large number > of users bring us? Mostly weight in debates about standards > and such. Of course, I'm all for spreading the word about free > software and if many people come to agree with our ideas, I'll > be very happy, but when you start compromising on your ideas > to make free software widely spread, you soon end up with that > same Android situation, where people are using free software > but still don't care (that's the whole issue with open source > by the way). > > > IMHO to choose NOT to leverage that existing system on the > basis that it would be compromising your principles is really > cutting off your nose to spite your face. It is accepting > defeat. Similarly, not having a Twitter or Facebook presence > is to miss all of the eyeballs. I know these are "enemy > tools", but you use them knowingly and turn their own tools > against them. Well, that's my approach anyway. I don't see > that as immoral. I see it as rational "war strategy and > tactics". > > Using tools such as Facebook to promote our system implies > that we endorse the use of such tools, which we don't. This > gets in the way of the message we are trying to deliver. I > think it is our duty as good neighbors to try and educate the > masses about the issues we are dealing with, but it doesn't > mean this has to be an absolute final goal. People have to > take a few steps in our direction in order to reach our > message. This means for them not relying on tools such as > Facebook to learn about it. > > > If you don't care about having users then you won't have > users. Don't you want more people to be using free OSes? > > I don't understand why I would want that. I do not claim that > I hold some kind of truth that others are too blind to see. If > people are happy with their proprietary systems, iPhones, > facebook or whatever, well, good for them. My aim is to > provide an alternative for people with interest in the stakes > we're dealing with, not to make sure every single person on > Earth agrees with me. > > > There are millions of people out there who would love to use > your software, if they only knew it existed, and why it was > important. Don't you see that as a key part of your mission? > > If people are not aware, it's good to let them know about > this, that's our duty as good members of our community, but I > don't think this is really a problem nowadays. The Snowden > revelations were covered by national television all around the > world and I'm sure that anyone with interest in these topics > will find out about free software pretty soon. The information > about Replicant is pretty easy to find out about if you're > looking for it: we have a blog, a wiki, a wikipedia page, etc. > > I disagree this is the real reason so few people are > interested in Replicant and software freedom on mobile devices > in general. The real reason is most likely that people just > don't care and even though they know about privacy issues, > know that software somewhat restricts them, they just don't > care enough to do anything about it. Mainly, privacy and > freedom are not the values that prevail in their decision > making processes. In today's modern societies, it is all about > passive consumption, easiness, doing as few as possible, etc. > The idea of happiness is totally detached from any notion of > effort or intellectual process. That's the model of societies > we live in. Now of course, I agree that it doesn't suit me at > all, but who are we to decide for the masses what is good for > them? If most people are very happy with it, who are we to say > that we know better? Of course, the people who turned our > societies this way at first went ahead and forced people down > that path, that's for sur > e, but that still doesn't make it right to try and decide for > others what is good for them, even if it only seems fair. > > > Just building something so that people have the option is > like having a life-changing religious experience and then > living in a cave for the rest of your life :-) > > The comparison with religion is sort of relevant here. I would > say that trying to make as many people as possible use my > system is indeed the same attitude as religious people trying > to convert more and more people to their religion. I just do > not understand that attitude. As long as facts are easily > available for people looking for them, that shall be enough. > Why try and force people to change their mind? > > > Don't you want to get out there and spread the word, so we > can change the world? > > I don't aim to change the world. I am to provide the tools to > make it possible for people to change the world, if they feel > like it. > > -- > You have received this notification because you have either > subscribed to it, or are involved in it. > To change your notification preferences, please log-in at: > http://redmine.replicant.us/ > > ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ > ___ ___ > /\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\__\ ___ /\ \ /\ \ > /\__\ /\ \ > / \ \ / \ \ / \ \ / / / /\ \ / \ \ / \ > \ / /| | \ \ \ > / /\ \ \ /\ \ \ / /\ \ \/ / / \ \ \ /\ \ \/ /\ \ > \/ / | | \ \ \ > / \ \ \ \\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \/ / / \__\ \ \ \ \ \ \ > \/| | |__ / \ \ > / /\ \ \ \__\\ \ \__\\ \ \ \__\_/ __/ /\/__/_/ \ \__\ \ \ \__ > \| |/\__\/ /\ \__\ > \/_| \/ / / \ \/__//\ \/ / / \ /\/ / / \ \ \/__/\ > \/ / /| / / / / \/__/ > | | / / \ \__\// \ / /\ \\ /__/ \ \ \ \/__/\ / / > | / / / / > | |\/__/ \ \/__// \/__/\ \ \\ \__\ \ \ \ / / / > | / /\/__/ > | | | \ \__\_/ \ \__\\/__/ \ \__\ > / / / / / / > \|__| \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ \/__/ > \/__/ > > > > > > -- > [email protected] > >
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