Mouse and External Hard Drive that RYF
I've searched the forum but I wasn't able to find an answer to my concerns/questions. Please also excuse my ignorance on this subject.
(1) Do all mice contain their necessary drivers as standard?
(2) If the answer to (1) is Yes does there exist a mouse with a driver that RYF?
(3) If the answer to (1) is No does there exist a mouse (with no driver) that RYF and is compatible with Trisquel out of the box?
I also want to consider getting an external HDD to continuously back up my important data. Can someone recommend such a HDD that respects my freedom in that it does not require non-free drivers or firmware to function properly with Trisquel? I understand that many leading external HDD manufacturers tend to include non-free software with these devices.
Thanks for the advice.
Mice use standard interfaces (USB HID, Bluetooth; PS/2 for old mice;
there are proprietary wireless mice interfaces, but they probably all
have USB HID or PS/2 adapters). There are nonstandard extensions for
some features which probably work or aren't needed. Any mouse should
work out of the box. Unless it's e.g. a Bluetooth mouse when you don't
have a Bluetooth host controller that works without nonfree firmware.
All HDDs include nonfree firmware with possible antifeatures (some SSDs
are designed to lose data if they decide that they are being reverse
engineered; the NSA modifies disk firmware to install malware via
IRATEMONK). It's not a Trisquel nor RYF issue: it's included in the
disk and there is no need to update it (unless you work for the NSA or
equivalent insecurity agencies).
Simple external HDDs are normal disks in enclosures with some hardware
to translate between USB and SATA or other inner disk protocol. They should
work as USB mass storage and not need nonfree software on your Trisquel
system.
For backup, I use inner disks on multiple computers. (With software
RAID mirroring on desktop computers: disks break while it's less
probably that multiple disks will fail at the same time.) I don't have
external disks.
Thanks for the reply and the information. I wasn't aware of the USB HID specification but if I understand what you've said (and what I've read elsewhere) then any drivers required will most likely already be available in the OS (Trisquel GNU/Linux in my case).
With regard to the external HDD I will likely do what the others have suggested below and use Gparted to erase, reformat, and partition it as I choose. Thanks again for the help.
You can use Gparted to erase, reformat, and partition the external HDD however you choose. Yes, most have code that sends user info to the manufacturer every time you access it - just like products from Ubuntu, Google, AOL, Bing, Apple, Windows, and others do. Erasing and reformating will normally clean that up, except for the goodies Michał mentioned. :)
I have an old HDD set up as a multiboot flash drive that has over 30 live GNU/Linux distros for tesing purposes. Sure comes in handy for demonstrating OS functions with different desktops.
How could the HDD hardware access the internet? It could only be done by some software installed on the computer itself.
It is installed just like on USB flash drives ... Yes, you are correct, it must be connected to a computer with internet access before anything is sent. Most PC and cell phone users have no clue on how to set up firewalls, routers, modems, or computer ports.
About the HDD: Any HDD would work. Most of them include some software nowadays (mostly for Windows but some others also for Mac).
As you can guess those software are non-free. But the good news are that the word "FORMAT" exists and it will work great. You can (re)format the HDD with Gparted, for example, and destroy all that malicious software. Then you can use your HDD as a backup disk or a cloud if you wish.
Thanks for the suggestions and advice. Very informative.