GNU Linux-libre is a Grown-Up Today
Alexandre Oliva reminds us that "on this evening, 18 years ago, the #Linux-libre project was launched."
"before that, every distro that wanted to respect its users' freedom had to remove itself all of the binary blobs that were distributed as part of the kernel Linux's so-called sources"
"it took a little while for Linux to react to being so called out, by first making those binary blobs loadable separately, and then moving most of them to a separate subproject."
"that didn't really solve any freedom issues, given that the drivers still demanded users to install and run those blobs."
"Linux-libre joined the #GNU Project a few years later."
"the set of blobs demanded by Linux has grown out of control, much faster than Linux itself. nowadays there are even binary blobs that contain a binary copy of Linux!"
"you might think that, after the split, the kernel Linux became entirely Free, and that the only remaining problem are the demands for binary blobs and the documentation that directs users to install them."
"unfortunately, not even that is true. Linux still carries a few binary blobs disguised as arrays of bytes in what was supposed to be source files. there have even been recent additions to this wall of shame."
"so it doesn't look like we'll be able to retire GNU Linux-libre any time soon."
"when you're ready to try software freedom for real, we'll be here for you https://linux-libre.fsfla.org/"
Incidentally, one hour from now it'll be 800 days since I last rebooted into this kernel:
roy@bubi:~$ uptime 06:37:22 up 799 days, 22:49, 3 users, load average: 7.08, 7.13, 7.21
Old kernel:
uname -a Linux bubi 5.15.0-50-generic #56~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Sep 27 15:51:29 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
The machine is not open to the outside world, only LAN. █
