Is installing trisquel worth it despite having hardware not supported by coreboot/coreboot forks?
First off, nice to meet you all. I am wanting to use exclusively free software in my life to the greatest extend I can. I have a Dell Optiplex 3050 tower, and booting trisquel off USB seems to work perfectly, (ethernet, sound, and whatnot). However my hardware doesn't support coreboot/libreboot and the like.
So my question is, Is there any gain to be had from a privacy standpoint by using trisquel? Or it is all pointless due to a proprietary BIOS?
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Welcome here!
From a privacy standpoint, the proprietary BIOS is a risk but any additional non-free software is an additional risk. Every piece of proprietary software can misbehave in a different way, then I would say that there is a privacy gain in using Trisquel even on proprietary BIOS.
In any case, even with free software only, it is not easy to be in control of all what a computer does, so perhaps the best way to keep something private is to only write it on a piece of paper that you keep with you, rather than use a computer to store it.
"First off, nice to meet you all. I am wanting to use exclusively free software in my life to the greatest extend I can. I have a Dell Optiplex 3050 tower, and booting trisquel off USB seems to work perfectly, (ethernet, sound, and whatnot). However my hardware doesn't support coreboot/libreboot and the like.
So my question is, Is there any gain to be had from a privacy standpoint by using trisquel? Or it is all pointless due to a proprietary BIOS?"
A good way I saw it put once was "perfect is the enemy of good". If your system can run Trisquel than you will be having less closed source code running on your system than if you ran a distro that didn't use the libre kernel. To be fair even Libreboot systems have closed source firmware in some of their hardware baked in, it just doesn't come from the kernel. At that point our only real option is a Talos II. I don't know about you but as much as I would love one I don't have $10,000 lying around to buy one. At the end of the day we can just make the best choices we can given our budget and options available. Welcome and enjoy !
By choosing Trisquel, you're reducing the power that proprietary software has over you, even if that hold isn't completely gone. Perfection should not be the enemy of the good, as PublicLewdness put it. I'm thinking of the FSF Freedom Ladder campaign. At the same time, don't let this be the end of it. Please continue to climb the freedom ladder. Perhaps, for example, it could make sense to get different hardware, with the RYF certification, the next time that you're in the market looking to buy a computer. If you can't solve the problem for good and all forever that doesn't mean it's useless.
Reasons to use Trisquel on any hardware:
1. Trisquel 11 is much lighter on resources than nearly any of the big bloated systemd distros. So if you need to use systemd for some reason, Trisquel is just better.[1]
2. Also it comes with a libre privacy browser built in with Abrowser, so you don't have to build Icecat yourself or do other gyrations to get safe, reliable web browsing.
3. And if you enable Trisquel's backports repo you get the latest LibreOffice and a few other key programs where a lot of other distros stick you with old, stale versions. On Debian you would be stuck with an ancient version of LibreOffice. I saw that Mint does not offer a fresh version of yt-dlp, so watching videos with mpv won't work well.
4. Also you can configure Trisquel 11 to run xorg rootless, which is a big security advantage, also something that a number of other distros cannot do.[2]
For me these are all critical advantages for my work machines, so Trisquel 11 is a necessity regardless of the bios/uefi setup.
[1] https://trisquel.info/en/forum/trisquel-running-desktop-or-window-manager-lowest-memory-usage
[2] https://trisquel.info/en/forum/running-xorg-regular-user-trisquel-11
Dell Optiplex 3050... That reminds me of another computer called Dell Optiplex 7010 and 9010 which are supported by Dasharo (and its upstream Coreboot). I have a Dell Optiplex 7010 and I'm planning on flashing Dasharo boot firmware onto it.
Anyway, I think installing Trisquel is still a great thing, even if your computer still runs proprietary BIOS :)
There's a tool called me_cleaner which *partially* deblobs the ME firmware on your system. It could be used to minimize the harmful effects of proprietary software, but I can't guarantee that me_cleaner will work on your system.
Better to run some free software than non at all. I have decided to be ok with the trade off of a proprietary bios to have much newer/faster hardware.
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I believe that we must also view cybersecurity as a collective, rather than a solely individual, task
Most of talk has been around how we can protect ourselves, and in this context we are trying to find special ways to hack and maintain self-security.
Although this is respectable, and in many cases provides some stunning results if people share their findings with others, this alone isn't a viable solution.
States and companies have unlimited resources and manpower to counteract our personal security measures even if we build insanely secure structured computer usage.
My personal attitude is a social approach. We protect ourselves by protecting others. A real life analogy with birds:
> One reason why birds swarm is for safety in numbers. Predators like hawks, falcons, and eagles have a harder time singling out one bird from a large group than they do picking off solitary prey. The more birds that are present, the less likely any single individual will be attacked.
That is why the most important thing is not only looking to fortify ourselves but also helping others. This way we are creating a swarm that protects those who need protection the most, like whistleblowers or people in need.
- If we convince and educate a group of people for example to use a free browser and some good practices with it, then we also help our personal security.
- Promoting free software helps corporations to limit their control to society.
- Opposing state laws that promote surveillance is also crucial
- Having freedom in the hardware is just another step.
Every bit of the decisions we make for our freedom has impact in our society. So please, use free software and trisquel, it helps all of us.