Why is Linux riddled with nonfree software?

Why is Linux riddled with nonfree software?

Why don't they write free drivers instead of dropping blobs into the kernel?

Is it just lazyness?

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it's hard to RE hardware so you can write a driver for it. things like graphics cards are very complex, and other things like wifi drivers are probably not as hard but easy to make a mistake on

They have a very strict code policy that's why it's easier to compile shitty code into a blob then making it FOSS.

Because only Theo de Raadt is manly enough to go through with free drivers to the point of removing bluetooth support entirely just to make a point.

>removing bluetooth support entirely just to make a point.
This is the hero free software needs

Binary blobs are firmware

It would be too hard to reverse engineer them all + even if the source code was open the toolchain used to produce the binary might not be

Ded OS, ded lyfe.

what a madman. I refuse to believe that he's that insane. that has to be a troll.

Disabled in 2011
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Purged from existance in 2014
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If it's not auditable and open, it doesn't belong in OpenBSD

holy shit. this man is even more insane than RMS.

but you know what, it's a fucking niche server OS so the loss of BT is probably not a big deal since no one will use it anyway.

> muh firmwares

if it doesn't run in your cpu/memory who cares? stallman is wrong this time. use all the firmwares you want. this is not a blob. blobs are shit that want to actually run in kernel space. enough.

>no one will use it
uninterrupted 6 month releases for two decades fucktard

He means nobody will use BT, because it's a server OS and servers don't need BT

no one uses openssh

i stand corrected.

Firmware is the software on the hardware itself. Drivers are how the computer interacts with hardware. The blobs are drivers.

Install linux-libre then

Daily reminder that Debian is the only relevant distro that keeps blobs away from kernel.

Never understood why, but it's apparently popular as desktop OS, more than FreeBSD at least (which instead is more popular on servers).
I guess people who use OpenBSD are already used to making this sort of sacrifices?

100% listen to this guy faggots

no they just don't care about bluetooth and no one is paying them to care. it may be fun to make it more complicated, but it's this simple.

The only reason Debian is not on the GNU approved distro list is because one MAY activate non-free repositories. Correct? I was checking out the list and was wondering why Debian wasn't there.
What does Sup Forums think of the other distros in the list?

He's actually somewhat more reasonable than rms. He allows firmware images to be used by drivers he just doesn't allow his kernel or OS to be proprietary. He asks the company for the source code for their drivers and he gets a rejection he just reverses the drivers and makes one himself or someone else in the community does. OpenBSD devs also straight up tell you to do it yourself if you ask for hardware support. They'll help you if you post source code but they wont just bend to demands

fsf doesn't recommend debian because they have an optional non-default non-free repository. a lot of it is just fonts and codecs. over the years most of it has fallen into irrelevancy but its still there.

>>Is it just lazyness?
No, just incompetence.

because "free" software is a meme. fuck off.

(((Free software))) is controlled by a kike who wants communism to take over the world. True freedom is to allow proprietary software.

This, open and closed source are development models, their goal is to compete with quality.
(((Free software))) is plain communism pushed by a fat commie who coincidentally is also a KIKE.

>Debian's Social Contract states the goal of making Debian entirely free software, and Debian conscientiously keeps nonfree software out of the official Debian system. However, Debian also provides a repository of nonfree software. According to the project, this software is “not part of the Debian system,” but the repository is hosted on many of the project's main servers, and people can readily find these nonfree packages by browsing Debian's online package database and its wiki.
>There is also a “contrib” repository; its packages are free, but some of them exist to load separately distributed proprietary programs. This too is not thoroughly separated from the main Debian distribution.
>Previous releases of Debian included nonfree blobs with Linux, the kernel. With the release of Debian 6.0 (“squeeze”) in February 2011, these blobs have been moved out of the main distribution to separate packages in the nonfree repository. However, the problem partly remains: the installer in some cases recommends these nonfree firmware files for the peripherals on the machine.

Ignore the list, only RMS-tier zealots care enough to get on there, and there aren't enough people like that around to maintain a good distro. So either they take most of their packages from a normal distro (in which case you might as well use that one instead) or the distro sucks.

>Software components with no available source code are called binary blobs and, as such, are mostly used for proprietary firmware images in the Linux kernel. While generally redistributable, binary blobs do not give the user the freedom to audit, modify or, consequently, redistribute their modified versions.

The linux kernel doesn't ship with any closed source drivers...

>Is it just lazyness?

You mean like how you were too fucking lazy to Google the answer?

You don't care anyway so troll elsewhere. DIAF.

firmwares aren't blobs. they do not touch your cpu or memory. if you want freedom respecting firmwares, you want free hardware.

>free software
>communism
>meme
>kike
>fat
>conspiracy

fuck off Sup Forums.

A lot of the codecs in there will become free software in the coming years because the patents on them will expire. H.264/AVC is getting up there. MP3 may already technically be free but I'm not sure if anyone knows for certain yet.

I agree. I appreciate all the nice open source tools but I can see why video games and media production software need to stay closed source

he's still less insane than him

he doesn't go on autistic tirades about dumb shit like GNU/Linux for example

Because Linus and Linux Foundation doesn't care about Stallman and his stupid freedoms. Linux is a tool, it uses open source licenses to be more efficient and better, but nothing more.

Because Linux is for niggers. You're literally a class A nigger if you use Linux as your OS. That's most of Sup Forums. NIGGERS!

Shut the fuck up NIGGER!

>Is it just lazyness?
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