Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : boraxman
From : tenser
Date : Mon Apr 25 2022 01:12:21

On 23 Apr 2022 at 12:47p, boraxman pondered and said...
 
 bo>  te> I don't think you understand.   It's not what's _on top_ of the
 bo>  te> kernel that limits you using your computer how you see fit, it's
 bo>  te> what is _underneath_ the kernel.  Many millions of instructions
 bo>  te> are run by hidden microcontrollers in a modern desktop system
 bo>  te> before the x86 cores even come out of reset; many billions of
 bo>  te> x86 instructions run before the bootloader you've installed is
 bo>  te> even started.  Hell, millions of x86 instructions run on Intel
 bo>  te> processors before you've even turned on DRAM.
 bo>  te> 
 bo>  te> But you ask, what have you won?  Well, if that allows someone to
 bo>  te> do some useful work, you've won quite a bit.
 bo> 
 bo> https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2022-03-22-libreplanet-emacs-living-freedo
 bo> 
 bo> This is a really good discussion on freedom, in the context of Emacs. 
 bo> The lived experience is your freedom, your ability to use your machine
 bo> as you see fit, and as computers are general purpose computers, in that
 bo> they can simulate and reproduce any possible imagined workflow, the more
 bo> the system allows you to realise that, the freer it makes you.

Except, as I have pointed out, you cannot use your machine
"as you see fit."  Do you have any idea what runs in SMM mode,
or what's peripherals are saying to each other behind a PCI
bridge, or what the firmware in your graphics card is doing?

RMS acolytes waxing eloquent about emacs while missing the
obvious issues entirely is sophomoric pseudo-intellectualism.

Moreover, if the software I want to run to do work I care
about doesn't exist for the "free" platform, then how "free"
am I, really?  I can't use the tool I have for the purpose I
intended, thus limiting my "freedom."  "Our hammers aren't
compatible with mainstream nails" isn't actually a great look.
"The nails need to change" as an absolutism doesn't work.

Besides, weren't you the person asking, "why should I care
about supporting the kernel?"

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
 * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

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