Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : boraxman
From : tenser
Date : Sun May 01 2022 00:21:30

On 30 Apr 2022 at 10:10p, boraxman pondered and said...
 
 bo>  te>  bo> Which is the point you were making earlier, wasn't it ;)
 bo>  te> 
 bo>  te> Bazingo.
 bo> 
 bo> Which I don't disagree with, and is forward looking.  Freedom requires
 bo> both, the ability to understand, modify, configure and compose software
 bo> at the higher level, and the ability to actually build it and run it at
 bo> a lower level.
 bo> 
 bo> The former cannot exist without the latter, but the latter without the
 bo> former is pointless.

The latter is essential the former.  What does it matter what
you do to configure your "free" desktop and shell environment
when you can no longer boot it because the platform vendors
have locked you out at the firmware level?  Or when you can
no longer get an X server that works on your hardware because
the graphics adapter vendors have decided that they just won't
tell the X people how to program the hardware?  That is the
point.

Fortunately, Linux is too important now to lock out entirely.
But vendors don't care about Xorg or Wayland, and the firmware
folks could well require signed kernels to boot, in which case
your "freedom" to configure your own kernel is gone.  And if
that kernel only runs signed binaries?  Forget it (and yes,
Linux supports that, and yes, it's used in data centers).

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