Re:The FSF’s relationship with firmware is harmful to free s...
by r283492 on Sunday January 23, 2022 @12:10AM
(#30043802)
> Making it inaccessible to tinkering is strictly worse for the user in all respects.
"all respects" is wrong. It also makes it so the proprietary developer can't say "here is a new version, but you must agree to some very nasty license terms, or accept some malicious feature along with it." NOT having a capability does have advantages, a physical book is impossible to be remotely deleted out of existence by DRM, but sure, you can't tinker with the software.
edit: yes, I understand in that the case of sticking the exact same software in a rom vs a read-write memory hurts the ability of a user reverse engineering it, which could ironically decrease user freedom over time. Calling this out for FSF to address is a good thing.
Re:The FSF’s relationship with firmware is harmful to free s...
by R0b0t1 on Sunday January 23, 2022 @01:28AM
(#30044079)
You're taking the vendor at their word. You can't do this. It has happened before (see Intel vPro) that some feature is not actually impossible to activate, etc.
"all respects" is wrong. It also makes it so the proprietary developer can't say "here is a new version, but you must agree to some very nasty license terms, or accept some malicious feature along with it." NOT having a capability does have advantages, a physical book is impossible to be remotely deleted out of existence by DRM, but sure, you can't tinker with the software.
edit: yes, I understand in that the case of sticking the exact same software in a rom vs a read-write memory hurts the ability of a user reverse engineering it, which could ironically decrease user freedom over time. Calling this out for FSF to address is a good thing.