57 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Free your BIOS today!
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...
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### What is this? ####
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GNU Boot is a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the
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nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot
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software.
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GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects
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like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc.
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So it's not very different from [100% free GNU/Linux
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distributions](https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html) like
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Trisquel or Guix.
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Like the other 100% free GNU/Linux distributions its tasks are:
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* To find and remove nonfree software in projects it reuses.
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* To build the software and assemble it in something that can be
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installed. To test it and to provide installation and upgrade
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instructions.
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* To provide good default configuration that work for most users.
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### How this project came to exist ####
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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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Unfortunately, such a muddle happened last year with a boot program
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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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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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repeated efforts to continue collaboration with those developers to
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help their version of Libreboot remain libre, but that was not
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successful.
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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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Libreboot, that after some hurdles gave birth to this project: GNU Boot.
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