Terminal Tilt
R.L. Dane 
🍵 
I think the linux-libre kernel is a neckbeard too far, if you'll forgive the minced analogies, but go for it! ;)
It's a nice thought but my WiFi card is just too new.
Moses Izumi@terminaltilt @rl_dane
The FSF could've implemented a friendly "no blobs please"-button on every installation GUI, but instead chose to write a list of obscure distros that don't package proprietary drivers (even if your hardware may need them).
I like to view the linux-libre approach as a maintainability/longevity thing, rather than a matter of security or ideological purity.
Would be more interesting if there was a distro that defaulted to only shipping software written in interpreted languages :D
The FSF could've implemented a friendly "no blobs please"-button on every installation GUI, but instead chose to write a list of obscure distros that don't package proprietary drivers (even if your hardware may need them).
I like to view the linux-libre approach as a maintainability/longevity thing, rather than a matter of security or ideological purity.
Would be more interesting if there was a distro that defaulted to only shipping software written in interpreted languages :D
I mean, taken to its logical extreme, it means you'd have an OS consisting of a compiled microkernel which did nothing but load a simple interpreter, which then loaded some kind of more complex interpreter or VM, in which everything was written.
Actually, the HP48 series calculators were basically that. Very little of its OS was compiled, everything else was either interpreted/tokenized "System RPL" or "User RPL."
IIRC, the only difference between the two was a little bit of performance in exchange for removing some guardrails.
@rl_dane @terminaltilt
I used to fiddle with ZDoom mods and got disappointed when a project relied on ACS (compiled language invented for Hexen) instead of Decorate/ZScript (script language that implements all of Doom's game logic, along with a bunch of handy additions).
I don't know how easy it is to disassemble ACS bytecode, but I still didn't like the idea of hopping between languages.
I used to fiddle with ZDoom mods and got disappointed when a project relied on ACS (compiled language invented for Hexen) instead of Decorate/ZScript (script language that implements all of Doom's game logic, along with a bunch of handy additions).
I don't know how easy it is to disassemble ACS bytecode, but I still didn't like the idea of hopping between languages.
I guess the big question is if decompilation of ACS binaries would be a 1:1 process, like some basic bytecodes that can go backwards and forwards pretty effortlessly.
Not surprising. That soft-fork of the linux kernel yeets not only firmware but binary blobs of any kind, including basic data like initialization vectors and whatnot. It's a hard-nosed ideological stance, which I tend to be in favor of (if for no reason other than a contrast to the standard attitude of the tech community, which comes across as some sort of craven self-pimping), but it honestly goes beyond all bounds of reason. :/