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+---
+title: "GNU Doesn't Care About Your Agency"
+date: 2022-02-10
+tags:
+ - gnu
+ - libre
+ - rant
+---
+
+Or: Ubuntu gives the user more agency about how they want to use their computer
+than fully libre GNU/Linux distros ever can.
+
+There are many different kinds of Linux distributions, but today we're going to
+think about a certain kind of distribution: ones where the distribution is
+totally comprised of free software as much as possible.
+
+These distributions aim to let users benefit by making it possible to study,
+hack at and modify every byte of software on the machine's hard drive. This is a
+fairly noble goal, however in the process of doing this they break core parts of
+hardware compatibility by "de-blobbing" the kernel. Most of these distributions
+have a very paternalistic implementation where the "de-blobbed" linux-libre
+kernel is the _only_ option, thus limiting users' agency.
+
+For example, let's think about the CPU that I'm using right now. The CPU I'm
+using is designed to be able to load CPU microcode updates that are distributed
+by the manufacturer in order to mitigate bugs in the microcode that released
+with the CPU that can cause real-world impact on what I do. Due to Facts and
+Circumstances that are immutable for the sake of argument, this microcode is not
+open source and cannot be compiled from source code. The linux-libre kernel
+removes the ability to load such firmware updates at runtime.
+
+This means that if something like the FDIV bug or Spectre shows up again but it
+can be patched trivially with a microcode update, by nature of using the
+linux-libre kernel I am doomed until the base microcode gets updated from the
+motherboard manufacturer. If they release a closed-source update that you cannot
+inspect or modify.
+
+This paternalistic view of "you shouldn't be able to load microcode updates
+because they aren't open source" means that my CPU will be vulnerable to
+potentially critical security flaws and I have no way to work around it. This
+ends up creating a _limitation_ in how I use my computer. This is worse than the
+limitations of proprietary hardware because there is the illusion of free choice
+that the community will spout off about as the next coming of sliced bread. That
+still doesn't change the fact that my wifi card won't work without the normal
+kernel and firmware blobs.
+
+Combine this with other things like wifi card firmware (some wifi cards don't
+have the firmware stored on the device, they require the OS to send it firmware
+at runtime to make it work at all), and you have actually limited the agency and
+capability of users far, far more than if you just let them load the firmware in
+the first place.
+
+[Yes, Yes the companies made the hardware this way in the first place and are
+responsible for the problem, but telling users they are wrong for wanting it to
+work because of an implementation detail about how the hardware updates itself
+feels a lot like victim blaming. I am aware of the Talos II being a magical
+puppy and rainbow situation where all of this isn't an issue, but sadly the
+world just didn't turn out that way and we have to deal with the results of
+it.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
+
+Consider a situation like wanting to play an online game together with friends,
+but through Facts and Circumstances you have an Nvidia GPU and the game is on
+Steam with no open source option. If you are using a fully open source operating
+system with no capacity to install Steam or the Nvidia drivers, you are screwed
+and thus your freedom to use your computer how you want is severely limited.
+
+This also extends to how those Linux distributions handle things like AWS. AWS
+is largely the poster child of a proprietary cloud hosting platform that you are
+made to work with as part of your job. Consider if something like Parabola
+GNU/Linux created AWS images and gave users a best-in-class user experience for
+using them. This would make the net cost of using a highly auditable environment
+a lot lower than the current "don't use AWS lol" (which is again really close to
+victim blaming), and would also create institutional knowledge that would let
+other people benefit from this as a second or third order effect.
+
+Parabola making AWS images means they can create more generic images, which
+means that other people can use those images to do whatever they want with their
+own hardware. This lets you have a net benefit to everyone in the project by
+decreasing the friction of using it, so it will in turn make users more likely
+to adopt it.
+
+Remember the law of halves. Every additional step in adoption costs you half
+your audience. Spinning up an AWS instance to mess around with it is a very
+low-friction operation.
+
+[But you can just not be a scrub and compile your own traitor kernel that lets
+you load freedom-violating binary blobs!](conversation://Numa/delet)
+
+[Then you have to hope your CPU is good enough to build a kernel, hope you can
+pay attention to the kernel security mailing list enough to upgrade it when you
+need to and finally hope you can upgrade the firmware blobset that the kernel
+publishes separately! Hope is not a scalable strategy.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
+
+If their goal is _really_ to liberate users and make it easy for them to have
+control over what their computer is doing, they should make it trivial to escape
+hatch into a less "pure" setup without having to install third party
+repositories that you just have to know about or sidestepping the upstream
+update process to install your own system software. This is more victim blaming.
+
+The GNU project could be more than a circlejerk around things that the toe
+cheese god said in the 80's and 90's. They could have been a source of reverse
+engineering tools, institutions and overall inspire the kind of culture that
+would make it _easy_ to understand arbitrary hardware, platforms and software
+that you either come across or are made to use as a part of your job.
+
+But they aren't. Instead, Guix, one of their if not their main flagship project
+for making a fully GNU system, is addled by the use of the linux-libre kernel.
+This makes the kernel fundamentally _incompatible_ with a shocking number of
+computers, thus limiting users' freedom to use Guix at all.
+
+[But wait, isn't there that one nonguix project that allows you to install a
+normal kernel and Steam?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
+
+[Yeah, but talk about that in the main #guix channel and you risk getting
+banned. GG. You just have to know that it exists and you can't learn that it
+exists without knowing someone that tells you that it exists under the table.
+This means that knowledge of the nonguix project (which may contain tools that
+make it possible to use Guix at all) is hidden from users that may need it
+because it allows users to install proprietary software. This limits user
+freedom from being able to use their computer how they want by making it a
+potentially untrustable underground software den instead of something that can
+be properly handled upstream without having to place trust in too many
+places.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
+
+[That hardware is defective by design and you shouldn't use
+it.](conversation://Numa/delet)
+
+[Wow, thanks, I'm cured. My wifi card magically stopped existing and now
+everything is happy unicorns farting put rainbows that spawn free puppies and
+everything is saved forever.
Again, that doesn't help me with the
+situation that my wifi card doesn't work and I as a user want it to even though
+making it work will require proprietary firmware. This shit is how you get
+things like the "GPL condom" in the Purism Librem phone, where all the
+proprietary firmware is rigged to be loaded automagically in hardware instead of
+sofware. This limits your ability to tinker with or modify the firmware _even if
+there are legitimate reasons such as critical updates_. So by making the
+hardware work with fully free software you have limited the ability to actually
+improve the state of the world even with the proprietary firmware the
+manufacturer gives you.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
+
+
+[That hardware is defective by design and you shouldn't use
+it.](conversation://Numa/delet)
+
+[Wow, thanks, I'm cured. My wifi card magically stopped existing and now
+everything is happy unicorns farting put rainbows that spawn free puppies and
+everything is saved forever.
Again, that doesn't help me with the
+situation that my wifi card doesn't work and I as a user want it to even though
+making it work will require proprietary firmware. This shit is how you get
+things like the "GPL condom" in the Purism Librem phone, where all the
+proprietary firmware is rigged to be loaded automagically in hardware instead of
+sofware. This limits your ability to tinker with or modify the firmware _even if
+there are legitimate reasons such as critical updates_. So by making the
+hardware work with fully free software you have limited the ability to actually
+improve the state of the world even with the proprietary firmware the
+manufacturer gives you.](conversation://Cadey/angy)
+
+Ubuntu gives the user more agency about how they want to use their computer than
+fully libre GNU/Linux distros ever can.