What's the point of going 100% free software down to the BIOS...

What's the point of going 100% free software down to the BIOS? Is it actually more productive or do we do it for moral superiority?

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I do it because I'm a homosexual incel that has no life.

Intel management engine and other backdoors and shitty bios code.

As RMS says, SW is either fully free or it is not free at all. Any tiny piece of proprietary code (e.g. tiny backdoor in processor or whatever) can be trivially used to take away your freedom.

Ethics is not just some snob word, it mean programs (and people who make them) behaving in a good way towards you, the user. It is not something to boost your ego, it has very practical consequences.

Never sell freedom for increased productivity or convenience.

So code can be verified to have no backdoors. i.e. intel me

ME and supposed "backdoors" are beneath the BIOS.

RMS is completely fine with proprietary software on devices that don't interface the web i.e. your BIOS. He calls it part of the hardware.

>do we do it for moral superiority?
Almost. The correct term is virtue signalling. Same thing movie remaster directors do when they turn redheads into blacks.

>Wanting control over the products you own that you use to transmit personal and sensitive data is the equivalent of Hollywood Jews virtue signaling to minorities for shekels.

You officially have made the most retarded post using the most inaccurate and idiotic comparison to date on this board. Congratulations.

I thought it was neat, don't only use my librebooted FSF approved distro x200 as my main and only machine.

Both

I'm not the previous user but I highly, highly doubt that.

>for moral superiority
Interesting delusion.

Please learn the definition of freedom and then stop using it incorrectly. Being murdered or imprisoned are a few examples of having your freedom taken. Not receiving the source code (under a specific license) to some software you use isn't taking your freedom.

Honest question from a brainlet how can the intel ME call home and access the internet?
Did intel make it so it is compatible with any OS i'm running or could it just send data directly to my network card just if the computer is on and if i'm connected to the internet all data read by it can go to intel?
I don't understand the logic of it

>how can the intel ME call home and access the internet?
It can't because Intel doesn't have the technology to download every single network driver in existence and burn them on a chip this small while still leaving room for the ALU, cache and registers.

You know they can just do it through the BIOS and the OS, right?

Only CIA niggers and nigger cattle support proprietary software. God says all code belongs in public domain.

>being allowed to redistribute a software means it's more reliable
Virtue signaling.

Then it's not ME.

Yes, but the ME gets neutered when flashing libreboot or coreboot

not him but you really need to wake up because you don't see the big picture. if at any point you aren't subservient to your government for whatever reason, be it that they demand you disclose your information and you refuse, they can just go through a backdoor on some application you downloaded, or whatever OS/BIOS you're running. it all circumvents your will and leads to your scenario of imprisonment. at the very least, if a political group wants to discredit you and make you a social outcast, in the future, all they have to do is just scan all your files which they have access to and frame it in a way that makes you unappealing. there are things beyond murder and imprisonment that are worse for you, such as being blacklisted everywhere, career wise and otherwise.

I do it because I don't want to end up in a Fema camp when AOC is the president and sees all of my mommy posts about her on rasist frog forums.

Why? Because it’s software that respects your freedom.

Imagine that you buy a car and the manufacturer tells you that you cannot pop open your hood to change the oil or replace your spark plugs. Or removing that tracker that sends a GPS location to god knows who at all times. Or, equivalently that you cannot sell your car sometime after buying it.

Free Software does not impede your freedom in this way. It protects you from such malpractice.

The FSF's position is that if the BIOS can be flashed then the firmware should be free as in freedom. If it can't be flashed then it isn't a free software issue because it can be considered part of a circuit. You still may consider this a problem depending on your viewpoint.

The reasoning for this is that if the manufacturer has the ability to update the firmware but reserves that ability for themselves only in a manner they control, that grants them unjust power over the computer to insert backdoors and force unwanted updates, etc. But, if the ROM is burned into the chip and can't be flashed, then this isn't a software freedom problem because not even the manufacturer has the power to update the firmware. Obviously they could still ship you a broken and backdoored device though.

You verify all the code yourself?

He doesn't necessarily need to, someone else can verify it and then publish the results.

It does actually. More eyes = more reliable code

If something isn't open you have no way of knowing what sort of exploits/backdoors/datamining they're doing with your shit. Just look at intel-aviv and their mossad spyware.

>Not receiving the source code (under a specific license) to some software you use isn't taking your freedom.
If you want to have control over your computer then yes it is. Read the EULA to some of the proprietary software you use, those restrictions are real and do very much affect what you can do with the software.

Is there even such a thing as flashing normal motherboards with open-source BIOS?

coreboot/libreboot

how well do they actually run, and what are the downsides?

I get using it all the way because sometimes ─ like in some old Dell servers ─ the firmware is shitty and contrived.

I don't use 100% free software, but I imagine I'd have a massive erection if I made it work

it runs fine, you can hack the firmware to your heart's content
the downside is not many devices are supported

I see, I'll look into this with one of my older PCs. I always just assumed there was nothing at all you could do about BIOS-level mossad spyware.