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Open-Sourcing our Firmware

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Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#31

Post by galgalesh »

brightball wrote: post #10
kingcharles wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that flag != language (British Union flag for English being a prime example), but what is the next best alternative?

Yea, it’s always a struggle. UI wise it clearly looks better to use flags and people know what it’s for when they see it. There’s always people who complain about it though. I’m of the opinion to not worry about it and just use the flags. It’s enough effort to properly internationalize a site and keep it maintained. That it’s available at all is a huge effort. Debating flags vs a drop down with languages is nitpickin…

Yeah, just use flags and confuse the fuck out of multilingual countries. Belgium has Dutch, German and French as official languages. So what would a Belgian flag mean? What flag should I choose?

If I choose the flag from the Netherlands to get Dutch, I'll probably be confused by a whole bunch of terminology since the dutch of different countries differs vastly more than the English from different countries.

"People who complain about flags are nitpickers" is a perfect way to say "I grew up in a gigantic monoculture where you can drive 5 hours in any direction without encountering a different language, if you ignore the natives"

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#33

Post by skrtskrt »

option wrote: post #27
m0ngr31 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can

All configs list Win10. what am I missing? Of course I can buy with Win paying for it and then re-install.

Pretty sure from other discussions I have seen that it's only the DIY version that has an option for no OS, then you install Linux yourself

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#36

Post by Shared404 »

HideousKojima wrote: post #25
marcodiego wrote: post #19

What is the reason behind closed firmware? I understand that wifi devices may operate out of the certification depending on what the firmware does, but other devices... why do they have closed firmwares?

Probably to hide/protect corporate secrets, or if the firmware integrates proprietary code from a 3rd party it would be difficult to open source for legal reasons.

Also in the case of Wifi/Bluetooth it seems like FCC regulations would make having open firmware difficult due to the fact that it would make it easier to allow end users to broadcast on arbitrary frequencies. This way they have deniability.

...That said, not a subject matter expert so take this with a grain of rock salt.

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#37

Post by p_l »

grishka wrote: post #32
donkarma wrote: post #3

now lets get an open source baseband

Osmocom is a thing, but no idea how good it is. I've seen articles about people running cellular networks with it.

The real issue is certification and so on. The people running small cellular networks tend to have necessary permissions or operate within certain limits.

For public, general usage baseband, it will need to be at least tamper evident and you won't be able to just run your own.

I'd personally be fine with auditable baseband (i.e. you can always verify what code it runs, then let's say compare to public code tree and build hashes), with possibly a signature scheme that would link builder and certifications. Then if you went to the trouble of proving you have the necessary qualifications and won't break shit, you could sign with your own certificate and take responsibility.

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#38

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

Hjfrf wrote: post #22
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am very tired of seeing one flag represent my language where that is the newer nation using that language as national language. But that language is spoken for a thousand years or more in other regions. I'm not disagreeing with your general point, but I'm curious: What language is over a thousand years old and still recognizably the same language?

US English comes to mind, not that middle English is particularly readable.

I was thinking of English as a counter case when I wrote the comment:) Skimming the history section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#History , I don't think I would really describe anything before "Early Modern English" (1500-1700) as meaningfully the same language; if you took a modern English-speaker and gave them a sample of Middle English, they wouldn't be able to read it, and if you stuck them in a room with a speaker of ME neither would be able to understand what the other person was saying.

Although in fairness, it does now come down to a semantic argument about what counts as the same language, and I acknowledge that a reasonable person could disagree with my narrower view.

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#39

Post by p_l »

Shared404 wrote: post #36
HideousKojima wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably to hide/protect corporate secrets, or if the firmware integrates proprietary code from a 3rd party it would be difficult to open source for legal reasons.

Also in the case of Wifi/Bluetooth it seems like FCC regulations would make having open firmware difficult due to the fact that it would make it easier to allow end users to broadcast on arbitrary frequencies. This way they have deniability. ...That said, not a subject matter expert so take this with a grain of rock salt.

FCC doesn't prevent you from opening the firmware (now, trade secrets inside is another thing) - they just do not allow unlicensed devices i.e. you can't just build your own radio firmware and have it operate legally.

Re: Open-Sourcing our Firmware

#40

Post by Insanity »

galgalesh wrote: post #31
brightball wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, it’s always a struggle. UI wise it clearly looks better to use flags and people know what it’s for when they see it. There’s always people who complain about it though. I’m of the opinion to not worry about it and just use the flags. It’s enough effort to properly internationalize a site and keep it maintained. That it’s available at all is a huge effort. Debating flags vs a drop down with languages is nitpickin…

Yeah, just use flags and confuse the fuck out of multilingual countries. Belgium has Dutch, German and French as official languages. So what would a Belgian flag mean? What flag should I choose? If I choose the flag from the Netherlands to get Dutch, I'll probably be confused by a whole bunch of terminology since the dutch of different countries differs vastly more than the English from different countries. "People w…

Can't say I recall a moment of really being confused by the terminology used in NL vs BE. But I do agree, a Belgian flag means nothing in terms of language. The flag can be used but only as a prefix to the actual language in text (to visually filter quickly).
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