I just noticed there's really not a lot you can do to achieve 100% software freedom with digital privacy
This deeply troubles me, but even so, put as much of that Genie back in the bottle as you can.
Let's narrow down the closest you can get to software freedom.
First: 100% Libre OS, so you need something doesn't need non-free software and that's tough to find, so the safest bet is Intel pre-skylake and radeon I think it was the HD 6000 series and below, right? Also Atheros wireless chips if you use wifi of which if you have a bios with a whitelist, that segways to the next thing.
Second: Libre Bios, if you have it, you can remove whitelists and remove BIOS RAM limitations. (like if you have a T60) Though you can do that with binary hacks, it's still voodoo magic.
Third: Platform security. Sure, an Lntel system with libreboot will have IME and PSP disabled, so your bios won't be spying on you, but there's all x86 exploits being discovered and that goes to the next thing.
Fourth: Libre CPU, there is RISC-V brewing, a "Open" ISA. But that means you only know the foundations reference designs and the Trademark "RISC-V" can be used for black box implementations that's binary compatible with the reference ASM code kinda like how the latest Epyc CPU is backwards compatible with code written for the Intel 8086. There's also Power ISA of which is compatible with Coreboot, but again, I watched the level1Techs review and Wendell said you needed non-free firmware for NVMe to work (even though the FSF just endorsed Talos II) and even Coreboot offers blobs. I heard AMD is contributing to Coreboot, but I'd rather have them just give out the source to AGISA and even the NDA signing board partners don't even know everything that AGISA does.
This really troubles me, but I'm like I said, putting as much of that genie back in that bottle as I can.
> radeon I think it was the HD 6000 series and below
AFAIK all Radeon cards require non-free firmware for 3D acceleration.
> PSP disabled
PSP is an AMD thing, and AFAIK there are no publicly known ways to disable it.
> but there's all x86 exploits being discovered and that goes to the next thing.
If you don't run untrusted code then these exploits are not relevant. Surely your computer runs untrusted code if it has at first been hacked using traditional exploits targeting software vulnerabilities, though.
> Libre CPU
To be truly libre to end users it needs to be software (because manufacturing of integrated circuits is very expensive), but soft CPU cores can execute only on FPGA, and all FPGA are hardware and are closed source. If you don't trust any specific manufacturer then I guess that the best (somewhat) realistic solution is a board with two or more functionally identical CPUs or FPGAs from different and independent manufacturers running the same code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockstep_%28computing%29, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_modular_redundancy).
What about the IceStorm and Trellis projects? Aren't they free software?
References: http://www.clifford.at/icestorm/ and https://github.com/SymbiFlow/prjtrellis
Software freedom is impossible in the capitalist world, because it conflicts with capitalist's (and government's) interests.
Richard Stallman isn't somebody who can make a change, either. He's still a (petty) bourgeoisie.
Let's hope the Revolutionary Communist Party of USA can make America a socialist country.
Are you joking here? Because if you are not, then I'm with you :)
RMS is living with very little and is not seeking money at all. I therefore find it hard to call him "bourgeois". As for "free software" being impossible in a capitalist world, I am not convinced.
Since RMS was and is definitely against socialism/communism (see his articles on gnu.org), he cannot be classified as a proletariat (worker).
Then he must be a bourgeoisie (capitalist).
Still not convinced? The history will convince you.
RMS lives a frugal lifestyle, but he supports Copyright for non-software. (though, if I recall it was 10 years) Copyright is very anti-freedom, yeah I know I use copyleft software, but I don't like the system of Copyright. I don't like the system, but I feel copyleft makes the most out of it.
My ideal world would have really good AI that can reverse-engineer binaries and do 95% of the work and we would have no copyright. Imagine if software was back in the days of RMS where it made sense to give code without a copyright notice and proprietary software didn't make sense because people would clone it anyway.
He's still a (petty) bourgeoisie.
The word you're after is "bohemian": A person with artistic or literary interests who disregards conventional standards of behavior.
Again. Making every human being become the bohemian is we painters's task. None of your business.
edit: artists > painters
typo: Letting every human being make > Making every human being become
I think he talks about his class, not his inclinations or quirks. Bohemians still remained petty bourgeoisie, by and large. The point is that bohemians may have been really nice people, but they had little to do with the change he talks about despite their professed spirituality or radicalism; their class couldn't be easily cast away by means of their good, liberatory intentions.
>Software freedom is impossible in the capitalist world
>>capitalist
I would like to abandon that term, the well has been poisoned every time that word goes into conversation. There are self-proclaimed "capitalists" that are libertarians, they like freedom and markets, they think "thanks to government interference, I can't even sell lemonade without kissing the ring of the king". I just want freedom and no monopolies and every monopoly has been caused by government interference because the government is a monopoly, a monopoly on kidnapping, (prison) violence, (cops) stealing money (taxes) and arbitration. (courts) Monopolies can't protect you from monopolies, I can't file an anti-trust complaint to the FTC for Amtrac.
I'm not a capitalist nor a communist nor a socialist, I just want freedom. Why do you think I'm using a LibreOS? I don't like centralization. Communes and markets and worker's co-ops are fine with me. I'm just sceptical about "personal property" because you can use mental gymnastics to claim reproductive organs are a "means of production" because they're means of reproduction and even an anus can be considered a means of production, because that's where you can get methane and even the most common citation, a toothbrush can be used to paint. Either you believe in property rights or you don't, but I don't believe in the monopolization of ideas. Making copies of your idea doesn't deprive you of your idea. https://invidio.us/watch?v=Fw-MFeR8Frw
I appreciate your sentiments, but a communist party is not the best way to live life you want to live. I don't trust any politicians, all politicians are the ruling class or as you call the "bourgeoisie".
100% Libre OS, so you need something doesn't need non-free software and that's tough to find, so the safest bet is Intel pre-skylake and radeon I think it was the HD 6000 series and below, right?
Well, no, it is not right. Trisquel 8's default kernel (Linux 4.4 with blobs removed) nicely (perfectly?) supports my Kabylake (i.e., post-Skylake) processor, in particular its integrated graphical chipset. Those graphics are recommended, not AMD's discrete cards, which actually are the worse when it comes to the features they provide without running blobs.