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this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Test it with OpenBSD and with a Linux-libre distribution to verify how open the hardware is.
This is patently false. As of now my Dell laptop doesn't use any proprietary blobs to speak of.
Even if that's true, that's a different computer.
Right. This laptop will be even more open. I'm not getting it.....
I see what you're saying now. Which dell laptop is it, by the way?
I suspect what people are assuming is that your laptop might have some closed source firmware or BIOS, and I assume what System76 is saying is that this won't be true on their Virgo laptop.
I'm a framework guy myself, at least so far.
By chance, it wouldn't happen to be the Dell Latitude E6400?
Intel hardware is very well supported in all distros at this point. You don't need to do any configuration with intel or nvidia at this point [running the open source driver]. You can have Arch up and running in minutes on certain Dells. My two are a 2021 XPS with Arch and a L5411 with Ubuntu [for work]. Both of these IIRC you can get with Ubuntu from Dell direct.
The GPU and WiFi drivers are going to be the major limitations here. All GPU and WiFi vendors now require proprietary blobs in order to function.
No. OpenBSD develops their own drivers fot Intel iGPU l, 2.5Gb ethernet, and wi-fi. They don't have.license to include them in base, they download the firmware after first reboot if there's a basic ethernet connection.
The source code is publicly available from OpenBSD firmware folder on server, but cannot be included in the base installation.
I've only used Linux-libre when it comes to fully free systems. There is no option to download proprietary firmwares on a GNU/Linux-libre distro.
Are the firmwares distributed as blobs, or as source-available (proprietary-licensed) code?
For OpenBSD firmware? They are not blobs but are binary installs as there is no such thing as a source installation, everything has to be compiled and build before it can be installed.
I believe OpenBSD firmware has an ISC license attached to them, but since OpenBSD developers develop the firmware, they don't have legal license from Intel to distribute in base, but I'm pretty sure that OpenBSD firmware has an ISC license for freedom.