X-Post from r/linux: An electrical engineers opinion on the Librem 5

[Caliga]

@Torrone

As far as I know, Purism had not work on modem firmware, they use proprietary software provided with the hardware.

@ramnasko

But i think he means that purisms firmware team is using the closed blob firmware from the vendor.

@tommes

I do not think they have any influence on the points mentioned by the redditer accept choosing different cards. I also think he overestimates Purisms influence on the firmware. If I understood correctly the firmware is stored in the m.2 card and not somewhere accessible.

I think that’s not quite correct. The choice of usable modems was narrowed down by

• voice call capability
• ability to run without runtime-loaded firmware (blobs)

But as I understand it, Purism is not just using M.2 cards “as available on the market”. They are working with the manufacturers to make changes and improvements to the firmware and drivers.

Librem 5 - WiFi Specs

Gladly! We have the goal to create a device that does not require firmware blobs at runtime. Most (almost all) current and more recent chips require a firmware download at runtime through the operating system. This is violating RYF specifications. This is BTW also the reason why we are still pretty stuck with the ATH9k in the laptops. The next constraint is that we need a WiFi chip / module that is as low power as possible for our mobile device. The module we have chosen now provides both, no …

Specifically

For getting rid of the runtime firmware we invested significantly in a custom firmware that the manufacturer made specifically for our use case.

And here, I believe, comes into play what Todd calls leverage: Very much depending on the order quantities, we might see improvements in several areas. Security, energy management, customizability, even openness.
I’m not suggesting we’ll see a fully free firmware any time soon (too many patents etc.), but to me at least it would not sound unreasonable to have an open firmware that embeds some IP cores. Maybe not, I don’t want to wake false hope

The point is, they do work with the manufacturers and the more leverage they have, the “better” the firmware will become.