[Fsf-friends] The Free Software Foundation's Campaign for Free BIOS

Frederick Noronha (FN) fred@bytesforall.org
Mon Feb 28 23:11:54 IST 2005


http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html

Campaign for Free BIOS

Chips and Motherboards that support LinuxBIOS

The Free Software Foundation's Campaign for Free BIOS

In 1984 the GNU Project set out to make it possible to operate a computer in 
freedom--to operate it without any non-free software that would deny the user's 
freedom

At the time, the obstacle to this was simply the operating system. A computer 
won't run without an operating system, but all the modern operating systems of 
1983 were proprietary, user-subjugating software. There was no way to use 
modern computers in freedom. We set out to change the situation by developing a 
free software operating system, called GNU.

When the kernel Linux became free software in 1992, it filled the last gap in 
GNU. The combined GNU/Linux operating system achieved our goal: you could 
install it in a bare PC, and run the computer without any installed non-free 
software.

Strictly speaking, there was a non-free program in that computer: the BIOS. But 
that was impossible to replace, and by the same token, it didn't count.

The BIOS was impossible to replace because it was stored in ROM: the only way 
to to put in a different BIOS was by replacing part of the hardware. In effect, 
the BIOS was itself hardware--and therefore didn't really count as software. It 
was like the program that (we can suppose) exists in the computer that (we can 
suppose) runs your watch or your microwave oven: since you can't install 
software on it, it may as well be circuits, not a computer at all.

The ethical issues of free software arise because users obtain programs and 
install them in computers; they don't really apply to hidden embedded 
computers, or the BIOS burned in a ROM, or the microcode inside a processor 
chip, or the firmware that is wired into a processor in an I/O device. In 
aspects that relate to their design, those things are software; but as regards 
copying and modification, they may as well be hardware. The BIOS in ROM was, 
indeed, not a problem.

Since that time, the situation has changed. Today the BIOS is no longer burned 
in ROM; it is stored in nonvolatile writable memory that users can rewrite. 
Today the BIOS sits square on the edge of the line. It comes prewritten in our 
computers, and normally we never install another. So far, that is just barely 
enough to excuse treating it as hardware. But once in a while the manufacturer 
suggests installing another BIOS, which is available only as an executable. 
This, clearly, is installing a non-free program--it is just as bad as 
installing Microsoft Windows, or Adobe Photoshop, or Sun's Java Platform. As 
the unethical practice of installing another BIOS executable becomes common, 
the version delivered inside the computer starts to raise an ethical problem 
issue as well.

The way to solve the problem is to run a free BIOS. And our community has 
developed free BIOSes--for instance, LinuxBIOS, which is a modified version of 
the kernel, Linux. However, few computers can run them. Whereas "PC clones" 
were and are quite similar, and fully-documented as regards what the kernel and 
user-space programs need to know, the commands that the BIOS must execute in 
order to initialize the machine are varied, and in most cases secret. How to 
install a new BIOS is also secret on many machines. And so far, most 
manufacturers have not given us the necessary cooperation of providing these 
specifications. Some desktop machines can run a free BIOS, but we don't know of 
any laptop that can do so.

The FSF uses laptops donated by IBM over the past few years. This was one among 
several ways IBM cooperated with the GNU Project. But the cooperation is 
incomplete: when I asked for the specifications necessary to make LinuxBIOS run 
on these laptops, IBM refused--citing, as the reason, the enforcement of 
"trusted computing" http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html 
Treacherous computing is, itself, an attack on our freedom; it is also, it 
seems, a motivation to obstruct our freedom in other ways.

Not all of our community perceives the non-free BIOS as an acute problem. Much 
of our community supports the open source philosophy, which says that the issue 
at stake is choosing a development model that produces powerful, reliable 
software. The open source philosophy doesn't say that "closed source" software 
is unethical, only that it is likely not to be as reliable. People who hold 
those views might care about the loss of freedom imposed by a non-free BIOS, 
because in their philosophy, freedom is not the issue. For us in the free 
software movement, freedom is the main issue; we have to solve this problem, 
whether they help or not.

How You Can Help


Since requests for manufacturers' cooperation have not solved the problem, 
another approach is needed. Now we are asking you to help.

For instance, simply installing a new BIOS in the machine is a substantial 
challenge. Most manufacturers don't publish the information on how to do this. 
If you can figure this out for some recent model, especially a laptop, that 
would be a substantial contribution.

Cooperation from the manufacturers would make that work unnecessary. However, 
to gain cooperation we need to press for it.

The most uncooperative company is Intel, which has started a sham "open source" 
BIOS project. The software consists of all the unimportant parts of of a BIOS, 
without the hard parts. It won't run, and doesn't bring us any closer to a BIOS 
that does run. It is just a distraction. By contrast, AMD cooperates pretty 
well.

You can help our campaign by buying AMD CPU chips and not buying Intel, and by 
publishing statements about what you're doing. Likewise, buy motherboards that 
support free BIOS. See http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html  for 
information on which companies cooperate and which models and motherboards are 
supported.

When you do this, tell your friends and your coworkers. And please tell us, 
too--please write to bios@gnu.org to tell us that you have chosen what to buy 
because it supports a free BIOS.

You can also help our campaign by writing to manufacturers such as Intel, 
saying they ought to cooperate with a fully free BIOS. Calm but strong 
disapproval, coupled with stating an intention to take action accordingly, is 
more effective than venting rage. Please send a copy of your message to 
bios@gnu.org, so we can monitor the support for this campaign. The more mail 
they get, the more effect, so please do add your voice to ours.

We would like to offer positive inducements as well as pressure. Our idea is to 
endorse, for a period of time, the first manufacturer in a given category of 
machine (for instance, laptops) that cooperates fully with free BIOS. To make 
this offer effective, we would like to collect a long list of people who say 
they intend to make their choices according to our endorsements. See 
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html for how to add your name to this 
campaign.

Once this campaign has built up strength, we will publicize offers of 
endorsements and begin inviting manufacturers to accept them. We will ask for 
your help at every step.
Created by peterb  Last modified  2005-02-28 10:27 AM

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Frederick Noronha (FN)                    Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia
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http://fn.swiki.net                       http://fn-floss.notlong.com
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