[Replicant] [PATCH 5/9] freedom-privacy-security-issues: Free hardware do exist today.

Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli GNUtoo at no-log.org
Sun Mar 27 13:43:54 UTC 2016


On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 16:47:56 +0100
Paul Kocialkowski <paulk at replicant.us> wrote:
> Free hardware means a fully free hardware design (both at pcb and
> chip levels). I don't know of any mobile devices that fits the
> chip-level hardware freedom requirement, so I think it's fair to say
> that free hardware doesn't exist in the scope of mobile devices.
> 
> Perhaps the current version should contain this analysis, emphasis
> that it's about mobile devices. Also it should contrast with the rest
> about hardware freedom not being a practical possibility for most
> people.

I tried to be generic, not to have to do extensive research on the
topic.
I'm sure that some devices that targeted the community have schematics
and gerbers.

As for mobile phones, I'm not aware of all community friendly devices
that existed. Some are way less known.

The GTA02 and the GTA04 have schematics. I've not checked the rights
and licenses that we are given with such schematics.

As for chip-level, we couldn't run 100% free software on
laptops/desktops until very recently. Many GNU/Linux distributions also
ships non-free software.

Software/Hardware freedom being highly incomplete doesn't mean that it
doesn't exist.

However, if you know more about this topic with regard to mobile
phones and tablets, it might be interesting to add the current state of
affairs. This way it may help promoting the issue.

We could open a wiki page to do some research on it, and once done,
merge a patch on top that would further detail the issue.

Denis.
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