FSF Certifies A USB Microphone For Respecting Your Freedom Plus Some Network Adapters

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FSF Certifies A USB Microphone For Respecting Your Freedom Plus Some Network Adapters

The Free Software Foundation has announced the latest batch of hardware it has certified for "Respecting Your Freedom" as part of its RYF program...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FSF-RYF-USB-Microphone

[microcode]

Very strange indeed.

[jacob]

While other microphones may nod need blob drivers either, it can be simply that they never bothered to apply for RYF.

[Sonadow]

These latest devices to be certified by the FSF include:

- Penguin Wireless G USB Adapter (TPE-G54USB2)
- Penguin USB Desktop Microphone for GNU / Linux (TPE-USBMIC)
- Penguin Wireless N Dual-Band PCIe Card (TPE-N300PCIED2)
- PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card Dual Port (TPE-1000MPCIE)
- PCI Gigabit Ethernet Card (TPE-1000MPCI)
- Penguin 10/100 USB Ethernet Network Adapter v1 (TPE-100NET1)
- Penguin 10/100 USB Ethernet Network Adapter v2 (TPE-100NET2)

Is this some kind of joke?

Oh wait, it's no joke. WiFi compatibility in Linux is so dated that only two USB 80211ac chipsets (out of more than 30) are usable with a mainline kernel from the last four months.

The only option available for true USB WiFi compatibility is to use 20 year old hardware. I get it.

[Veto]

Though frankly I am not aware of any basic USB microphone requiring binary drivers or binary firmware these days...

No, but it has a freer sound

[stormcrow]

Is this some kind of joke?

Oh wait, it's no joke. WiFi compatibility in Linux is so dated that only two USB 80211ac chipsets (out of more than 30) are usable with a mainline kernel from the last four months.

The only option available for true USB WiFi compatibility is to use 20 year old hardware. I get it.

It's not quite that simple. The problem with all wireless devices for the past 15 years or so is that very few of them, mostly Atheros, use open firmware. They all use binary blobs that must be loaded by the driver on device initialization. Many devices are like that, including modern video cards, some wired NICs, even webcams. That's not acceptable to the FSF and some of the more extremist libre software/hardware advocates.

The rest of us just want our computers to work and care very little about open firmware whether or not it's loaded by a driver or built into the device's ROM.

Michael is right about the USB audio thing, though. Simple USB audio compliant devices don't need external firmware, they "just work". Few device manufacturers are going to care about what the FSF thinks about their device, if they're even aware of the organization, so even otherwise free software friendly devices (ones that are standards compliant) aren't going to be listed by the FSF.

[Sonadow]

It's not quite that simple. The problem with all wireless devices for the past 15 years or so is that very few of them, mostly Atheros, use open firmware. They all use binary blobs that must be loaded by the driver on device initialization. Many devices are like that, including modern video cards, some wired NICs, even webcams. That's not acceptable to the FSF and some of the more extremist libre software/hardware advocates.

The rest of us just want our computers to work and care very little about open firmware whether or not it's loaded by a driver or built into the device's ROM.
.

I'm being sacarstic. Of course I know about that. It's just downright aggrevating that only two USB 80211ac chipsets are compatible with a mainline kernel when there are more than 30 out there and we are moving on to 80211ax.

Things aren't any better on the M.2 / PCIe side as well. The only 80211ac M2/PCIe chipsets that are reliably compatible with a mainline kernel are Intel and Qualcomm, and they make up only half the market. Realtek, Mediatek and Broadcom make up the other 50% and their compatibility is pathetic. Even Realtek, the so-called best of the worst, has spotty M2/PCIe 80211ac compatibility with mainline kernels.

[GraysonPeddie]

PCIe Gigabit Ethernet Card Dual Port (TPE-1000MPCIE)

Would be nice to see an FSF-approved quad gigabit card so I can replace a 4-port Intel gigabit card. But then I don't think there is any FSF-approved APUs out there that make use of a GPU embedded inside a CPU. I have an AMD Ryzen 3 2200G for my server.

[Filiprino]

The rest of us just want our computers to work and care very little about open firmware whether or not it's loaded by a driver or built into the device's ROM.

Guess what, you should care a little more. Have you read about those nasty Intel chipset backdoors lately?

[Sonadow]

Guess what, you should care a little more. Have you read about those nasty Intel chipset backdoors lately?

Then you shouldn't even be on this forum.

You should have thrashed all your mobile phones and computers because everything from the GSM standard to the ARM hardware and the x86/x64 hardware can be backdoored.