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GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

libreboot.org

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Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#191

Post by slim »

lodovic wrote: post #133
teddyh wrote: post #7

GNU Boot seems to have sent it not for anything in Libreboot itself, but to adress a web page with self-proclaimed “unofficial” GNU Boot releases. They wanted it to stop proclaiming to be “unofficial GNU Boot” releases. Understandable, if a bit antagonistic. EDIT: Courtesy of user jbit¹, this is the aforementioned web page: https://web.archive.org/web/20230719185342/https://libreboot... > 1. https://news.ycombinator.…

How can they object to "unofficial" releases of Free (tm) software when anyone can pull the code and build it.

it's not even the same code

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#192

Post by Fnoord »

bubblethink wrote: post #45

Completely pointless drama, but there is a real issue here in that people (phoronix) mistook the unofficial one for the real one ( https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Boot-20230717 ). This is their way of interjecting.

I'm still not sure I understand it correctly.

So we have Libreboot (pronounce 'LibreBoot'), and we have an unofficial GNU Boot (pronounce 'NewBoot') both by Leah Rowe (from UK, good coder, also a drama magnet). With the unofficial GNU Boot being more up to par with Libreboot, and being 'completely FOSS' whereas the other one made concessions.

Then we have Coreboot (formerly known as LinuxBIOS) on which Libreboot is based, and we have an unofficial Libreboot, and an official GNU Boot. What is the purpose of the unofficial Libreboot and official GNU Boot? They're both lagging behind the other versions by Leah Rowe. I'm all for forks but why do we have these people who seemingly unable to collaborate with each other, and then create all this drama?

I used LinuxBIOS once. On an old ThinkPad T61. I replaced the proprietary BIOS with LinuxBIOS, and my goodness it was fast compared to the slow, proprietary BIOS. But it was also risky to replace the BIOS if I didn't want to physically touch the device, fiddling with soldering and the like. So for too long, I did not dare to.

Which is why Leah offers this service to other people: second hand, physically clean and proprietary firmware stripped devices. Old devices. Which require various microcode fixes but once these are active (and an up-to-date Linux distribution takes care of that) they should be secure.

In the end I brought my ThinkPad T61 to the dump. The battery and backup battery were both dead, the SSD was dying, the case was a bit damaged and some screws were missing, and I couldn't bother to update the slow machine. That I could've sold it or have someone patch it up and resell it didn't tilt in my mind. I was relocating and needed to get rid of a lot of stuff so it is hindsight 20/20 that would've been the best option.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#193

Post by whstl »

slim wrote: post #191
lodovic wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can they object to "unofficial" releases of Free (tm) software when anyone can pull the code and build it.

it's not even the same code

Well, it is GNU Boot code but rebased from newer versions of Libreboot.

GNU Boot seems to be Libreboot with very minor differences (mainly documentation) + removal of binary blobs.

Check https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/libreboot-devel/2023-0... and https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/libreboot-devel/2023-0... to see the patches.

There is also a Savannah repository but history does seem to have been deleted: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnuboot.git

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#194

Post by cookiengineer »

Dah00n wrote: post #180
cookiengineer wrote: post #128

There were some harassment threads popping up over the last couple months, both on /g/ and /pol/ where the chans started to doxx her again. So I would be careful in reading into this. Of course no evidence because by the time it appears here, most threads and comments have been deleted already and the desuarchive-like websites almost never contain all comments. That's how 4chan works after all. My comment: Leah has b…

You want people to look away because it might be baseless accusations based on your baseless accusations? I never go to such crap places as *chan, but I have seen enough Leah drama to know it is absolutely possible the blame is at least 50/50. How about you do better than what you complain about and add proof? So far the only comment I have seen here that looks like throwing baseless accusations is yours.

> You want people to look away because it might be baseless accusations based on your baseless accusations? I never go to such crap places as *chan, but I have seen enough Leah drama to know it is absolutely possible the blame is at least 50/50.

> How about you do better than what you complain about and add proof? So far the only comment I have seen here that looks like throwing baseless accusations is yours.

Where does all the sudden hostility towards me come from?

Regarding proof: Just go to desuarchive and search for "tranny"+"libreboot" and you'll find a couple of threads.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#195

Post by guilhas »

When I hear Libre... I expect the project to not include any blobs without code. That I can change or build all myself

In that sense I think libreboot should rename to something else since they decided now to include blobs, for whatever good reason that was

We need to keep projects that continues to push for fully open hardware

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#196

Post by Forgeties79 »

lodovic wrote: post #131
Incipient wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal counterpoint about "yelling". I was having a conversation with my mother at a Cafe. After 15mins the lady next to us, very genuinely and nicely, asked if we were ok because we were yelling at each other. We're Italian. That was our normal conversation! Someone's definition of aggressive discourse is definitely not everyone's.

That's why "Sir, please don't raise your voice" is so condescending and just a way to make it look like the other party is escalating.

The number of times I’ve seen people having a discussion with somebody online and they respond with “bro, calm down“ when the person has used no caps lock, no exclamation points, no particularly vitriolic language, is staggering and incredibly irritating.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#197

Post by artyom »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #50
wkat4242 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really though? Look at the who's who of the Linux foundation and it's all the big tech lackeys deciding everything. Even very questionable companies like Huawei are highly represented. I don't call that anti-corporate.

Cue gratuitous eye roll. The Linux foundation is not equal to Linux. The entire point of the Linux foundation is to interface with the rest of the world's beuracracies, corporations included. Anyone can be represented by putting in the work and putting up the cash. Ultimately corporate garbage rarely leaks into the kernel proper. Most of the filth is off in driver land, which isn't even that bad given it's always goi…

Yup, exactly the point. Corporate garbage not making it into the kernel is solely the outcome of Torvalds-like style of saying "this is garbage and you're an *diot", where it's very rare that any processes or governance bodies would do anything about it.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#198

Post by 1000bestlives »

Dah00n wrote: post #176
1000bestlives wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There's absolutely nothing laudable in that at all and it screams of drama queen. "Lesser coders" - well that's is one person I'd avoid at all cost. Also, empty barrels make the most noise!

Dramaphobic, and probably transphobic to boot. You need to be better than you are right now.

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#199

Post by toyg »

b112 wrote: post #182
mcv wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't heard about this drama before, but as I can piece things together, Leah has been maintaining Libreboot and another boot system for years. Denis and Adrien disagreed with Leah's decision to include binaries, created their own version of Libreboot without those binaries and published it under the same name on a very similar domain trying to claim the existing Libreboot name for their version. Then I suspect Le…

I often wonder if someone is whispering in people's ears, to destroy such projects. For example, a long email history on any of these people(and even if you don't use, people you email do use gmail), from a central store such as gmail, would provide immense insight into personality traits, etc. Which means external motivaters could be used as handy leavers to drive dissent. Little spats like this, erode project trust…

Most FOSS projects are unpaid, and the only reward is nerd-fame. That's why maintainers are often petty about credits and "ownership".

Re: GNU Boot sent a cease and desist to Libreboot

#200

Post by Forgeties79 »

robertlagrant wrote: post #174
lodovic wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why "Sir, please don't raise your voice" is so condescending and just a way to make it look like the other party is escalating.

It's not just a way to do that. There's no point imputing a motivation you made up to the other person. It's doing exactly what you're saying they're guilty of: assuming.

I get what they’re saying though. It often has an accompanying tone that’s borderline meme-like. It’s this thing we say the moment somebody takes a tone we take any issue with - or we think we can publicly proclaim we take issue with to get those around us on our side. I think many of us were guilty of this at least once and would acknowledge it if we really sat back and thought about it.
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