18 years of the Linux fork that refuses to load the microcode that mitigates a range of CPU vulnerabilities
Never going to stop being angry about the subset of the free software community that would rather pretend that non-free software embedded in hardware doesn't exist than allow that non-free software to be replaced with equivalently non-free software that fixes bugs
@mjg59 This isn't a reason to oppose the freedom to modify, but one incentive that arises once you're able to replace it with new nonfree firmware is pressure to do so (e.g. software only works with the replacement now). This means you now have whatever malicious behaviors were in the original firmware plus whatever somebody decided to add once the hardware was in strategic positions. Even if I had this freedom I almost surely wouldn't use it. It feels like going from bad to worse.
@dalias @mjg59 The best protection would be to stop having laws that forbid affordable (non-cleanroom) reverse-engineering and other anti-interoperability laws.
@mjg59 In nearly four decades of computer-touching, I'm pretty sure I've only flashed a BIOS once: when the motherboard for my K6-III failed to support caching with more than 128 MB of RAM out of the box, but had a fix to allow more.
@dalias @mjg59 I also only did it once, and it was for a shitpost. I dumped my laptop's UEFI firmware using flashrom, did s/Intel Rapid Startâ„¢ Technology/Intel Rapid Fartâ„¢ Technology /g and flashed it back. It worked great!