[coreboot] Proposal: "Freedom level" field for boards supported by coreboot

[Merlin Büge]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2017 18:11:21 -0800
Julius Werner <jwerner at chromium.org> wrote:

> I think it's fair to penalize boards for this, but not as hard as for
> other components. The machine is still perfectly useable with text
> mode or software rendering. I would say this is way less severe than a
> non-free EC (which essentially means you can't trust your keyboard),
> for example. It should rank somewhere among the low inconveniences,
> maybe similar to a non-free WiFi chip.

Couldn't one just use a separate USB keyboard to circumvent that?


> >> A. Everything free.
> >> B. Non-essential component (e.g. GPS sensor) requiring proprietary
> >> firmware. C. Network component (e.g. WiFi) requiring proprietary
> >> firmware if it can be bypassed (e.g. USB, expansion card).
> >> D. Input/output-sniffing component (pointing device, keyboard,
> >> display, audio) requiring proprietary firmware if it can be
> >> bypassed, or CPU requiring microcode if it can be bypassed (e.g.
> >> just using factory ROM code).
> >> E. CPU or equivalently privileged processor requiring non-resident
> >> proprietary boot firmware.
> >> F. Network component requiring proprietary firmware that cannot be
> >> bypassed (e.g. no USB ports).
> >> G. Input/output-sniffing component requiring proprietary firmware
> >> that cannot be bypassed, or CPU requiring microcode that cannot be
> >> bypassed.
> >> H. CPU or equivalently privileged processor requiring resident
> >> proprietary firmware (e.g. Intel ME, Qualcomm TrustZone).
> >
> > My concern is mainly the number of levels.  If we make this too
> > much of a smooth gradient type thing people won't really understand
> > just how bad G and H really are.
> 
> Okay, sure... colors or naming could make that more clear, or just
> squash some of these categories together. I didn't really want to
> exemplify the granularity here, just how I think different non-free
> components should be weighted against each other to fairly represent
> the risk to the user.

I like how most boards (with ME & Co.) would just get an 'H' :)


> We could also try a system of points that get added together to reach
> a certain category (e.g. proprietary microcode is worth 5 malus
> points, proprietary WiFi could be 2, and resident proprietary firmware
> with full access short-circuits to the lowest category).

Personally, I like the category-based approach more, as I assume most
people would bother less about how many points their hardware scores,
instead of in what "freedom" or "security" category their hardware is
classified. I think the category approach pulls people more towards
libre-friendly hardware.


Btw, great effort and interesting discussion :)


Regards,

 Merlin




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-- 
Merlin Büge <toni at bluenox07.de>