@ignaloidas @wolf480pl @mjg59 >taken to it's maximum encourages hardware that locks users in into proprietary firmware
I don't see how it's a problem if users select hardware that contains proprietary circuits if the circuits aren't malicious and the hardware actually works.

>that has firmwaare that may be made free.
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a single case of proprietary Wi-Fi card peripheral software being replaced with something usable.

I've only seen one case of some 802.11g Broadcom Wi-Fi chipset getting free peripheral software, but unfortunately that's not usable as it lacks support for Wi-Fi encryption and can only be used on "open" networks.

In many cases, free Wi-Fi card peripheral software is cryptographically impossible to write, as the manufacturer has implemented digital handcuffs in the hardware to stop the user from doing so (intel does this for their wireless cards).

>Pinephone, which started with a proprietary modem firmware, but over time most of it was reverse engineered and made free.
The modem software is still mostly proprietary - only the userspace was replaced.

In this case there was no proprietary software loaded onto the modem at runtime - the software is preloaded onto the modem and as it turns out that someone skilled enough to replace proprietary software has no problem working out how to reprogram an EEPROM.

As always, absolutely nothing has been done about the proprietary Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and auto-focus software.