2021-05-18 14:21:48 +02:00
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---
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2021-11-13 06:48:07 +01:00
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title: Free your BIOS today!
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2023-10-04 20:03:25 +02:00
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x-reviewed: true
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2021-05-18 14:21:48 +02:00
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...
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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### What is this? ####
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2023-08-03 18:42:29 +02:00
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GNU Boot is a free software project aimed at replacing the proprietary
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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boot firmware that comes with computers with free boot software.
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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### How this project came to exist ####
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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We believe computer users deserve to control all the software they
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run. This belief is the key principle of the Free Software Movement,
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and was the motive for developing the GNU operating system and
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starting the Free Software Foundation. We believe computer user
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freedom is a crucial human rights.
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In order to achieve our goal, it is crucial that we call a program
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"free" or "libre" only when it is indeed free in its entirety. When
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we talk about specific programs, we must not muddle the facts about
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what is free and what is not. If people start referring to a progran
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as "libre," when parts of it are not in fact libre, that tends to lead
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the community astray.
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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Unfortunately, such a muddle happened last year with a boot program
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2023-08-03 18:42:29 +02:00
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that was free software and is called Libreboot: the development team
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added nonfree code to it, but continued to use "Libre" in its name.
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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2023-03-19 19:37:27 +01:00
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Libreboot was first released in 2013. It has been widely recommended
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in the free software community for the last nine years. In November
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2022, Libreboot began to include non-libre code. We have made
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2023-03-20 21:17:43 +01:00
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repeated efforts to continue collaboration with those developers to
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2023-03-19 19:37:27 +01:00
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help their version of Libreboot remain libre, but that was not
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2023-03-17 23:21:36 +01:00
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successful.
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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Now we've stepped forward to stand up for freedom, ours and that of
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the wider community, by maintaining our own version -- a genuinely libre
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2023-08-03 18:42:29 +02:00
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Libreboot, that after some hurdles gave birth to this project: GNU Boot.
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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### Project status and need for help ####
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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Right now GNU Boot is still in its early stage.
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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It should be relatively safe to use the [last release
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candidate](https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gnuboot/) (GNU Boot 0.1-rc1) as is
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has minimal changes on top of Libreboot 20220710 (the last 100% free
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release of Libreboot) and also because several people tested it and
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didn't report any blocking issue.
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2023-03-17 16:49:43 +01:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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However we need a lot of help for fixing the website as most pages are
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out of date or still refer to Libreboot or libreboot.at instead of GNU
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Boot.
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2023-03-16 16:37:32 +01:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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This is very important because the website also contains all the
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project documentation, including the installation instructions (we
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also need help testing them).
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2023-10-04 19:04:22 +02:00
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2023-10-31 18:49:35 +01:00
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See the [page about contributing to GNU
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Boot](/software/gnuboot/test/web/git.html) for more details on how to
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help GNU Boot.
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