Re: Meltdown / Spectre

[Tobias Platen <trisquel@platen-software.de>]

On 09.01.2018 22:18, Tobias Geerinckx-Rice wrote:
> Katherine,
> 
> Not really an answer to your question, I'm afraid. Just some thoughts I
> had after hitting ‘Send’ on my previous non-answer.
> 
> Katherine Cox-Buday wrote on 09/01/18 at 21:13:
>> Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> writes:
>>> [...] how do we square not recommending proprietary globs like this
>>> in official channels with giving users all knowledge required to
>>> decide for themselves?
>>
>> Yes, this exactly.
>>
>> It's a unique (hm, is it?) situation pitting the ideals of copyleft
> 
> I don't think it's unique per se, but it is of another degree entirely
> than, for example, asking users to buy a €15 RYF-certified wireless card
> instead of pushing proprietary firmware to the one they already have.[0]
> 
> The rationale there being that freedom is worth the price, and
> (implicitly but importantly) that this price is affordable for anyone
> who values their freedom and owns a computer to begin with.
> 
> I think that's reasonable.
> 
>> against the welfare of users. If an opaque microcode is required to
>> successfully mitigate these bugs, what is the moral stance to take> I
>> don't have an answer and that's why I'm asking here :)
> 
> Logically, it's perfectly sound to extrapolate the above policy to CPUs
> and entire systems. I'm half surprised someone hasn't done so yet: buy a
> Free(er) system, and you're arguably much better off than with even a
> patched non-Free one. And you're voting with your wallet. We all win!
The Talos II is a free-er system. And its processor (the POWER9) does 
not seem to be affected by Meltdown/Sprectre [1].

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/RaptorCompSys?p=s
> 
> Morally, at least in the short-to-medium term, I'm not convinced.
> The smell of privilege becomes hard to ignore with the costs and other
> assumptions involved.
> 
> Like you, I'm very curious to know what others think.
> 
>                                   * * *
> 
> Note: despite my musing above, I don't *actually* expect GNU Guix to
> start shipping or even recommending proprietary software, including
> microcode. It opens cans of worms and then the worms get everywhere.

> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> T G-R
> 
> [0]: I'll not address the question of whether a device with proprietary
> firmware that you can or must update is more or less free than a device
> with proprietary firmware that you can't.
> 
The Free Software Foundation treats programs stored in ROM as hardware, 
this is documented in [2] and [3].
[2] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/applying-free-sw-criteria.html
[3] https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html

Tobias Platem