Geminilake Will Require Intel Audio Firmware Blobs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Geminilake Will Require Intel Audio Firmware Blobs

Besides recent Intel graphics hardware making use of firmware binary blobs now for the GuC/HuC functionality, Intel audio hardware continues in making use of firmware binary-only blobs for audio support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Geminilake-Firmware-Audi-Blobs

[gerry_here_to_learn]

trying to get away from ever having to deal with drivers not take on more. bye intel. it was ok 'ish while it lasted.

[Kohrias]

I really dislike what Intel is doing here. I will definitely look for alternatives when I upgrade my laptop next time.

[Adarion]

This is alarming. I also noticed that Realtek had some recent audio chip that would feature "content protection". I guess this is one more thing for the content mafia and their TCPA/TPM controlled computers. The user is no longer trustworthy, the user who paid for HW, SW and content must be locked out of his/her own system.
I guess this is similar or even part of the requirements for e.g. Netflix 4K. W10 only and only with total locked-down-to-the-HW digital restriction management.

I want to be lord of my own hardware, the HW I paid for, thank you very much! And I also intend to enjoy the content I licensed on the OS and with the video players I prefer.

[wizard69]

This is alarming. I also noticed that Realtek had some recent audio chip that would feature "content protection". I guess this is one more thing for the content mafia and their TCPA/TPM controlled computers. The user is no longer trustworthy, the user who paid for HW, SW and content must be locked out of his/her own system.
I guess this is similar or even part of the requirements for e.g. Netflix 4K. W10 only and only with total locked-down-to-the-HW digital restriction management.

I want to be lord of my own hardware, the HW I paid for, thank you very much! And I also intend to enjoy the content I licensed on the OS and with the video players I prefer.

If this really is for content protection can you really blame them? As much as i like open systems, my distrust of people is even higher. Frankly until we institute real punishment in this country for theft (slow death by hanging comes to mind) we will need systrms in place to prevent content theft.

[ssokolow]

If this really is for content protection can you really blame them? As much as i like open systems, my distrust of people is even higher. Frankly until we institute real punishment in this country for theft (slow death by hanging comes to mind) we will need systrms in place to prevent content theft.

Let me know when your mother has been hanged for "stealing" recipes, your clothing supplier for "stealing" designs, and your father for "stealing" a bad joke.

Those industries do very well without copyright and, even if they didn't, "theft" has a very specific legal definition (as does "piracy") and copyright infringement is not theft. (eg. They're not deprived of their property, so it's not theft. Them taking downloaders to court for punitive damages is much more "government-sanctioned theft" than copyright infringement is "theft".)

(eg. No matter how much the industry wants to harp on about "lost sales", they're not entitled to my money. That's why, for the last decade, I've been proudly boycotting the movie and TV industry and DRM-only games. They can't claim I'm a filthy pirate if I readily pay for DRM-free games, reasonably-priced ebook bundles, and print novels, but won't even touch pirated copies of DRMed ones with a 10-foot pole.)

"Content" creators enjoy a very special privilege to get fat and lazy on past work, while stifling the process of cultural evolution that has existed for most of human history, while the rest of us entrepreneurs have to work normally.

You don't see people paying royalties to plumbers every time they mimic a repair they once saw performed.

Copyright, which began as a "monopoly for censorship" pact between the crown and the printing guilds, is only a few hundred years old. American copyright was originally restricted to "science and the useful arts" (ie. mapmaking). America is the cultural juggernaut it is now, in part because the U.S. ignored British copyright until it had a well-established cultural industry of its own, and, if I'm remembering my numbers correctly, U.S. copyright was originally "opt in for 19 years of monopoly, renew for another 19."

Recorded music and film is even younger... only about a century old, and Hollywood is in California specifically because it was out of the reach of Edison's patent lawyers.

According to studies, 90% of your revenue is earned in the first 10 years... making the rest a trade-off between private greed and social good.

Furthermore, we instinctually understand the difference between scarce goods and non-scarce culture. That's why education campaigns like "home taping is killing music" are doomed to fail. We're instinctually programmed to hoard things like toys and treats, but to share anything which can be duplicated at marginal cost (eg. jokes, stories, songs, recipes, trivia, etc.).

...and, most important of all, trying to stop people from sharing culture is like trying to plug a leak in a dyke with your finger. You're putting a band-aid on the first warning signs for a much more massive change under the surface and the only way to prevent it is to massively overhaul society into a censorship regime so ubiquitous and draconian that it would make Orwell's 1984 jealous. (Because, with modern communication technologies, if the protection is broken anywhere, it's worthless everywhere.)

[starshipeleven]

If this really is for content protection can you really blame them? As much as i like open systems, my distrust of people is even higher. Frankly until we institute real punishment in this country for theft (slow death by hanging comes to mind) we will need systrms in place to prevent content theft.

Ignoring for a moment that this ain't going to do anything to content theft, I don't blame them for adding whatever bullshit system they like to their own stuff (cable TV decoders and DVD players and whatever other embedded device). It's when they add this by fiat EVERYWHERE and to my PC too that I'm annoyed.

Why should I have them take control of my PC? Can't this bullshit be run with an add-on module and hardware switches?

No that would be too expensive for them so they feel like fucking me for the sake of their content protection. That's what is bad, that's what I don't like.

[Kayden]

What, seriously? Why would audio need blobs? It hasn't needed them in the last 25 years. This is awful...

[creative]

I would highly recommend keeping around an external sound card like the Lexicon Alpha. Then you will never have to worry about audio compatibility on any system. You plug it in and you have sound. Plus you can input high end mixers and audio from all kinds of sources. Audio creation is part of what I do and I never use onboard sound even though my system has linux friendly onboard sound. Right now I am using a Scarlett 2i2 2nd gen. On the 2i2 I do have to use jack pulse sync though for smooth integration where with the actual Alpha I don't have to do anything Pulse simply loves that unit.

[Serafean]

If this really is for content protection can you really blame them? As much as i like open systems, my distrust of people is even higher. Frankly until we institute real punishment in this country for theft (slow death by hanging comes to mind) we will need systrms in place to prevent content theft.

Yes I can. Make their content available only through their own platform (from the hardware up), and lets see how long they last. What is happening goes along the lines of the following story :
Once upon a time, an author wrote a book. It was so successful that it was copied left and right. Seeing lost revenue, he contacted a local mafia lord, who in his benevolence paid off officials to ban writing utensils, unless they had copy protection. So it happened, that any pen bought could only write that which has never written before, greatly limiting their usefulness.

Copying is sharing knowledge, never forget that.