@phnt @menherahair @Cyrillic @SuperDicq @yomiel @lxo @mischievoustomato >miss the point about CPU microcode. You are _already_ running one.
maskROM cannot be changed by anyone, therefore it is not software.

Yes, there is some hardware that I'm using, but there is no proprietary license attached to that hardware and I can do whatever I want with it.

There are a handful of ARM SoC's that work with free software that don't use microcode if you are really worried about such proprietary hardware.

>but in the name of conforming to FSF's policy
I have no hardware that is RYF approved.

The reason I don't install proprietary software microcode updates is because they're proprietary software that is clearly also proprietary malware looking at the proprietary license it's under; Copyright (c) 2018 Intel Corporation.
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Proprietary software is always unacceptable, even if it happens to execute in a different way than normal.

>And it _is_ broken
I'm not so weak that I care about rare crashes.

Provided you don't love wasting time by watching slop videos for more than a few minutes, you won't face any issues with stability on GNUbooted thinkpads.

Meanwhile, KGPE-D16 systems are rock-solid stable without any proprietary software updates, as AMD's CPUs for that time are of decent quality.

>no ability in updating embedded firmware means free, updating said broken embedded firmware means not free
Firmware is socketed ROM chips.

MaskROM is hardware and proprietary hardware that cannot be changed by anyone is not a software freedom issue.

Installing proprietary software updates is installing proprietary software.

>you instead choose to run _broken_ software with zero advantages over not updating it
I choose to use slightly defective hardware rather than surrendering my freedom to proprietary software updates that obviously contain malware.

I won't hesitate to install free software microcode updates that I'm confident aren't malware.