The people criticizing the FSF here act as if Stallman were wrong about these issues because he said it back then already. While in reality again and again he was right about how user freedoms are limited when the principles he outlined are not followed.
To give Intel a way to distribute closed source software updates to your processor is definitely a security risk. And we know for certain the actors in the USA that try to use those security risks for their surveillance programs. Don't act like this world does not exist.
> By withholding that information they are effectively eliminating the choice, and restricting users' freedom.
You are mixing up agency and software freedom, it's clear that you won't see eye to eye with the FSF as long as you do so.
I'm not even vigorously defending not showing the note about existing firmware updates, if Guix really does so. I'd prefer a note. Just what it would mean and how problematic closed firmware would be seemed like it needed a clarification here.
That is not what linux-libre is doing/refusing to do. What linux-libre is doing is censoring a message to their users that their microcode is out of date and their CPU has security vulnerabilities. They could've just left that in and let users make the choice whether to manually install the microcode updates or not.
> You are mixing up agency and software freedom
Agency is more important than software freedom. The FSF's problem is precisely their blind focus on "software freedom" when the definition of "software" can't even be precisely defined any more, to the detriment of everything else that affects users.
your refusal to accept FSFs right to adhere to its principles is bordering on the extreme. yet you constantly lob insults toward them as an organization. it does not help your points at all. they obviously hold different values to you. i think FSF is ok as long as they are clear about what they are doing and they are not trying to trick anyone. you have done absolutely nothing to demonstate otherwise in this whole exchange and instead you keep slinging FUD. i will repeat my question that i have asked so many times: has GNU or FSF anywhere claimed that they take a security-centric approach? as far as i know they have always taken a free-software approach. that they refuse to bend their principles to infantile screams is a big plus in my books
i think i have always held the opinion that for FSF and GNU their concept of security was "security through free software". that is free software (according to how its understood by them) comes first
IIRC Stallman criticized Ubuntu for collecting users' search info by default-- something they used to do[1].
It's unfortunate to see a call to nuance paired with an exaggerated claim that is so easily disproven.
Then they spin narratives about how this is important for not just freedom, but also security/privacy/etc, while their policies have absolutely nothing to do with improving users' security or privacy, as is made evident by the linux-libre issue, among many others. Actual assessment of the privacy/security impact of proprietary firmware on users is a much more nuanced topic, but the FSF are not interested in nuance, they just say "blobs (that you can see) bad".