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Re: gnewsense, bsd, blobs.

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From the words of OpenBSD Develoeprs: "OpenBSD emphasizes security. It also emphasizes openness. All the code is there for all to see. Blobs are vendor-compiled binary drivers without any source code. Hardware makers like them because they obscure the details of how to make their hardware work. They hide bugs and workarounds for bugs. Newer versions of blobs can weaken support for older hardware and motivate people to buy new hardware. Blobs are expedient. Many other open source operating systems cheerfully incorporate them; in fact their users demand them. But when you need to trust the system, how do you check the blob for quality? For adherence to standards? How do you know the blob contains no malicious code? No incompetent code? Inspection is impossible; you can only test the black box. And when it breaks, you have no idea why. Blobs can be 'de-supported' by vendors at any time. Blobs cannot be supported by developers. Blobs cannot be fixed by developers. Blobs cannot be improved. Blobs cannot be audited. Blobs are specific to an architecture, thus less portable. Blobs are quite often massively bloated. OpenBSD does attempt to convince vendors to release documentation, and often reverse-engineers around the need for blobs. OpenBSD remains blob-free. Anyone can look at it, assess it, improve it. If it breaks, it can be fixed." http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#39

Category: Tech
Uploaded: July 26th, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
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