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   翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Dec-2022 22:31:59 JST 翠星石

   • David Revoy
   @davidrevoy Sorry, but I saw one of your artworks and I had a realization that the proprietary kernel know as Linux is actually doing the opposite as to what was displayed.
   
   Linux was proprietary software in 1991, was released as free software in 1992, but became proprietary again in 1996.
   https://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/fsfla/Linux-libre.en.pdf
   
   Anyone who doesn't believe me, see here: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/arch/powerpc/platforms/8xx/micropatch.c (the license header is GPLv2, but that's binary microcode with no written offer for source code).
   I'm sure I could find lots more proprietary software if I was to look further.
   
   It's interesting that there's a nice long list of proprietary software companies that are members of the "Linux foundation": https://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/members (warning: clownfared and also proprietary JavaScript is required to see more than the first 5 members).
   
   
   Of course, there is a replacement from GNU (rather than a mere alternative): https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/
   
   A derivative by 翠星石 of "D4 Alternative a Framasoft" by David Revoy
   licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Change made: Corrected as to what Linux is doing.
   • Embed this notice
     David Revoy (davidrevoy@framapiaf.org)'s status on Thursday, 22-Dec-2022 16:55:43 JST David Revoy

     in reply to

     @Suiseiseki ? About this illustration, the penguin is the mascot of Framasoft (not Tux) and it was made to show how Framasoft will redirect users to new services when they'll stop providing services.

     eg. Framadrop service: https://alt.framasoft.org/en/framadrop

     翠星石 likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Saturday, 24-Dec-2022 17:31:39 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • ~f
     @vitali64sur >Linux itself as a whole isn't proprietary.
     I'm sorry, Linux is made up of free and proprietary parts, but if you look at it a whole, it's proprietary due to the proprietary parts.
     You're seem to be trying to say something akin to: "The well isn't poisoned as only 1% of the volume is poison and 99% is still water".
     
     >I don't think microcode source code makes sense (it's binary made to run in a CPU directly. How can you write microcode using C for example?)
     I don't know much about PowerPC microcode, but I know a bit about AMD64 microcode, so I'll write about that.
     
     For AMD64 CPU's, microcode does have source code, although it's likely in a custom language and probably not C (there's no way to be sure unless Intel or AMD note how they do it).
     The only setup that makes sense is if microcode is programmed, "compiled" and then built into the CPU as ROM.
     
     As for microcode updates, those are typically hooks applied to certain instructions in the microcode in ROM and I really doubt those patches would be done in the "machine code" form.
     Rather, the updates are likely programmed in the same source code form, hooking against the ROM binary and then "compiled".
     
     If the above is correct, the microcode source is therefore the source code form of the microcode in ROM as well as the source code form of the patches.
     
     
     See attached for an analysis into the microcode of certain AMD processors.
     
     
     >so this isn't proprietary in my opinion.
     It's so proprietary that both Intel and AMD have carefully written disgraceful proprietary software licenses for their microcode updates (referring to the updates as software).
   • Embed this notice
     ~f (vitali64sur@mamot.fr)'s status on Saturday, 24-Dec-2022 17:31:40 JST ~f

     in reply to

     • David Revoy

     @Suiseiseki @davidrevoy Also, I don't think microcode source code makes sense (it's binary made to run in a CPU directly. How can you write microcode using C for example?) so this isn't proprietary in my opinion.