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<H1>[Mageia-dev] free software purity question</H1>
<B>blind Pete</B>
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TITLE="[Mageia-dev] free software purity question">0123peter at gmail.com
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<I>Thu Jul 19 13:38:06 CEST 2012</I>
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<PRE>Steve Havelka wrote:
><i> There is at least one fully free-software computer:
</I>><i>
</I>><i> <A HREF="http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html">http://www.lemote.com/en/products/Notebook/2010/0310/112.html</A>
</I>
I am surprised and pleased that such a thing exists, but it
does not look like a replacement for my desktop computer.
MIPS cpus still exist. You learn something every day.
><i> This is the kind of computer Richard Stallman uses, as mentioned on
</I>><i> <A HREF="http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/">http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/</A>
</I>
If anyone was going have such a computer it would be RMS.
><i> On 07/18/2012 07:35 PM, blind Pete wrote:
</I>>><i> This is not supposed to be a troll, although I expect that some will
</I>>><i> interpret it as such. There are two parts; the first is how does this
</I>>><i> work, followed by some philosophical stuff. AFTER I get answers to the
</I>>><i> first part I want to make up my mind about the second part. Then you
</I>>><i> can flame.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> It appears that I don't know how things work.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> I prefer open source for a few reasons, but when it comes to
</I>>><i> motherboard BIOSes there is no real choice, so I just hope
</I>>><i> that the manufacturers are competent and trustworthy. What is
</I>>><i> the story with CPUs and video cards?
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> My attitude to non-free firmware is in flux. At the moment
</I>>><i> I am annoyed by it, but accept it as a fact of life and just
</I>>><i> install it.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> In the olden days CPUs and graphics cards were hard wired. If they
</I>>><i> didn't work you had to throw them out, change the masks and
</I>>><i> manufacture new ones. Remember the Pentium division error?
</I>>><i> Modern devices are far too complex for that to work. They
</I>>><i> have code that is variously known as; firmware, CPU microcode,
</I>>><i> or a video BIOS.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Now the bits that I don't know about...
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Does a modern CPU run *at all* without microcode? I assume that
</I>>><i> when you buy a CPU it has microcode in ROM on the chip.
</I>>><i> Then at powerup it copies the code from ROM to working memory
</I>>><i> where it is run until either powerdown or it is over written with
</I>>><i> a newer version of the same thing. Is that right?
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> As I understand it, microcode is usually used to emulate CISC
</I>>><i> instructions on RISC hardware. Can a consumer tell the difference?
</I>>><i> Would the manufacturers tell us, even if we asked nicely?
</I>>><i> If we do know which instructions are run on hardware and which
</I>>><i> are run in microcode, does is change from one chip to the next?
</I>>><i> Can gcc be configured to only produce the subset of instructions
</I>>><i> that run on the hardware? There are a couple of references in
</I>>><i> man gcc, but they seem to refer to the PowerPC, not x86.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Same problem with video cards. According to Wikipedia, since
</I>>><i> EGA hit the market in 1984, all video cards have their own BIOS.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Is *possible* to run anything better than CGA without using
</I>>><i> closed source code? If you physically removed the chip
</I>>><i> containing the video BIOS from a video card would you even be
</I>>><i> able to look at the motherboard's BIOS?
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Is there any practical, or moral, difference between;
</I>>><i> downloading and installing the latest firmware on boot,
</I>>><i> downloading and flashing the video BIOS,
</I>>><i> flashing the video BIOS from a floppy that came with the video card,
</I>>><i> waiting until cards with a good BIOS get distributed before buying.
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Should a truly free distribution say; "detected a VGA video
</I>>><i> card and/or a Pentium II, refusing to install"?
</I>>><i>
</I>>><i> Is there any choice? An open source BIOS an arm chip and a
</I>>><i> text only display?
</I>>><i>
</I>
--
blind Pete
Sig goes here...
</PRE>
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