If you’re looking at the cellular modem link and presume I haven’t read that and see that the user who posted it a moderator blacked out the URL after the fact, it’s a bad presumption. But I will point out that support certainly gave the instructions with the URL. And it doesn’t take a genius (only google-fu) to find that the link is <<censored by moderator - seriously, dude!>> which if you unzip it has the nonfree firmware. Distributed from puri.sm. Intention.
Or one could simply look at the BroadMobi operations manual and go right to the section entitled “Updating Firmware” where they describe how to upgrade the firmware from windows. It’s in their FCC documents. So, at least BroadMobi had the intention that people would need to update firmware after delivery. Of course their instructions require Windows … which is a bigger obstruction to Purism customers than most
I’m not sure if it wasn’t originally blacked out by the poster. I am confident, though, that when Purism support gave that user the instructions, it included a non-blacked out URL for the download. That said, the link to the Purism hosted zip file that contains the non-free driver was still easy to find.
No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. I’ll take the action to secure those files on Nextcloud. Sharing links to protected files hosted on Purism servers is a quick way to have those files locked down. It’s a matter of a business agreement/relationship with the product vendor; we must be careful to not bite the hand that feeds. I’m an advocate of sharing as much as possible, but it’s not worth a cease-and-desist and/or losing future access.
I understand, but my point stands. These restrictions will not change until we have a follow-up discussion with the vendor. It’s professional courtesy.
