Linux-libre does not load nonfree firmware. However, until now, I did not realize that this is not an objective of Linux-libre. The actual objective is to avoid recommending nonfree software to the users, including in the error messages and in the source code. The idea is to get the users make an informed decision instead of directing them straight to proprietary firmware. Linux-libre would actually like to be able to give users a choice to load nonfree firmware. They just don’t see how.
We disable blob loading, but that’s a bug, not a feature. Alas, it’s not fixable without sacrificing the goal.
That is something that even RMS would like to be communicated more clearly.
So, it was never an intention to prevent users from using nonfree firmware.
No, considering that it is actually kind of a bug in Linux-libre.
This is very interesting, thanks for sharing this!
I wonder why they did not think it was sufficient to only silence the log output from firmware loads, which would avoid steering users toward the nonfree firmware if it wasn’t already there. I haven’t reviewed the whole thread yet though, maybe that answer is in there
As I understand from the linked article, they wanted to stop various distribution installers from suggesting nonfree firmware to the users as well as from silently installing nonfree firmware without the user’s consent. Removing the code in the kernel which loads the firmware is a way to achieve that effect, even though it takes away the ability to use firmware without recompiling the kernel as a trade-off.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible to enable their loading in a way that doesn’t also enable some hostile installer, upon noticing the kernel’s looking for certain blobs, to tell users that those blobs are needed and have to be installed. (…)
Some nasty installers go beyond inducement, and decide on their own to go ahead and install the blobs, without even telling the user, or asking for consent for the mistreatment, which I find very unfriendly and disrespectful.
