I'm pretty sure the graphics are non-free. And why did they fork Trisquel
into Purism GNU/Linux? And why aren't they seeking FSF's RYF certification?
(Because it would not qualify, which is a good indicator of how "free" it
really is - It automatically fails the RYF criteria due to the proprietary
software for the BIOS irrespective of graphics hardware. We have already have
machines with free BIOSes and giving the RYF certification to a machine
without it seems like a step backward for software freedom.)
http://puri.sm/posts/purism-software-freedom-deconstructed/ seems a bit
misleading, seems like they're trying to "measure" freedom and of course you
can weigh in a lot of free software on many machines even with proprietary
drivers too and make those proprietary things seem like a tiny, insignificant
thing when compared against the total number of packages in the distro, just
like what they seem to be trying here. Another thing that seems misleading is
when they said "A boot loader is the first software program that runs when a
computer starts" right after they just finished talk of another software
program that was running before the bootloader. Huh?
Ignoring the marketing spin, the level of software freedom provided by the
hardware seems to be exactly the same as what you'd get from any other mass
market-produced laptop once you install Trisquel on it i.e., all of the hard
parts from the hardware are still there (graphics, BIOS, etc.) I don't see
this bringing us any closer to having more 100% free laptops and can easily
see how it will cause some confusion from people thinking it does while
falling short of the previously announced ThinkPads (and some other upcoming
devices) that were given the RYF certification.
They do talk of trying to get free source code for things which is nice if
true... BUT... I can't imagine that they're big enough to make demands on
companies like Intel and HDD manufacturers to get Free source code and have
it carry any weight. Would be good if it happened though.
