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[blog post] what it's like to live with as much foss software as possible (spv.sh)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/linux@programming.dev
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[–] 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's funny seeing blogs about this because I live with 100% FOSS, minus firmware

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    On your phone, too? Your router? Modem?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    Router yes, actually router is running coreboot and tiano core with OpenWRT. Does still have proprietary microcode though, and WiFi firmware. All my WAPs also run OpenWRT. I don't have a modem, I have fiber. The ONT is probably running something proprietary but as far as I'm concerned that's ISP equipment, not mine. Phone...not quite. I tried...it is running an AOSP rom...but going to a full Linux phone never quite worked out. That being said I was originally referring to my laptop and desktop which make use of no proprietary software or drivers. I do go FOSS to the extreme as much as possible. I just haven't figured out the phone. I did try going f-droid only for a while but it made basic tasks on my phone substantially more difficult.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    The article wasn't about just running Linux: it was about trying to maximize use of OSS software in their personal compute. They write about using an OSS BIOS, OSS phone - everything that can conceivably and possibly be done.

    I don't recall if they talk about their modem, or switches; I think it's just their personal computing devices. Still, it's an interesting journey. I'm really nervous about replacing the BIOS; LibreBoot and CoreBoot look interesting, but I'm not in a place where I can afford to brick my computer.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Yeah I understand that. And as I noted with the exception of firmware which almost universally requires running very out of date hardware I do the same. I'd like to get there with my phone but I haven't managed it yet. I have written off firmware being FOSS because as mentioned. You almost always need very old hardware for that outside of embedded devices. And if you go down the firmware rabbit hole you probably have to draw the line somewhere. Platform firmware is the one everyone focuses on but what about GPU or NIC firmware? What about microcode or firmware embedded in the IME or PSP? Yes you can sometimes neuter the IME but that doesn't apply to all CPUs. It's just an unwinnable rabbit hole without going to a fully open computing platform.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Yes - agreed on a points.

    I think what the blogger of trying is to use OSS wherever it's possible. There are clearly parts which are not, but there are OSS BIOS alternatives to proprietary ones, OSS firmwares for some devices, OSS phones, OSS routers, and so on. By "maximizing" they just meant doing everything that was possible. Using an OSS-only operating system and software is the bare minimum and - as you said - is something many of us do: that's the easy part. Going the next step and replacing your phone, tablet, BIOS, and everywhere it's possible to use OSS is the "maximizing" part.

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    • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    You're not really living with as much free software as possible until you've installed all of the 103818 packages in debian.

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    [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I would love to hear about the dumb phone setup!

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    • 31 comments in c/linux@lemmy.ml view that post
    [+] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)
    [deleted]
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    • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Your website is refreshingly simple and also manages to be unique looking. I like it!

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    thank you! html pandoc template + nginx; i write my pages in markdown.

    a screenshot of GNU nano editing the blog post linked in the post.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    I don't. Please make the header and footer smaller or non-floating on mobile. And padding of the text is too wide too.

    And on desktop, * {…} rules are not good behavior. Firefox complains about quirks mode too.

    Edit: this is about the website, the tech, not your blog. Didn't got to read that yet.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    yeah, it's pretty unoptimized for mobile. on my todo list.

    where does firefox complain about that?

    also i should change the license footer, you're right

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Yeah, sorry, that came a bit harsh. I'm just a bit salty, because i dislike monospace and white-on-black for reading. But i'm working on something, that lets the user choose the reading settings. In the meantime, i just create a usercss (Stylus) for pages i see often.

    But that's another reason i'm salty; please don't do * {…} CSS hacks. Just set the rule on body, because children inherit, if not set otherwise. And * is the worst for performance, use the rightmost selector instead.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    no problem! i'm frequently described as "abrasive" so i guess what goes around comes around...

    i do appreciate the CSS tip(s) -- that stylesheet is a few years old with many alterations over time, so there are bunch of weird hacks that i'm not even sure why they're there. off the top of my head, for some reason the header is a div-within-a-div: #header and #header_internal. no idea why. :P

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    • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Does this even count? Not even running on an open core written to FPGA using Foss tooling 😉

    Just wanted to say my experience running a Librem 5 was amazing until I realized my social groups are religiously against texting or using anything besides Snapchat.

    Also ran a PPP for a while but it seemed harder to stabilize for me at the time.

    Been running FOSS everything else except for some firmware, bios, microcode, silicon, etc for many years now with no complaints. Sometimes I purposely chose hardware that is supported though so I suppose I have tailored my experience.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    i tried to build a risc-v smartphone but the ox64 is a pita and i gave up, lol using an ARM core for that project now (once i get my damned shipment)

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I have an orange-crab running Linux right now for an entirely auditable system up to that point and something reasonable secure but yeah I have not made the time to crank out some software/drivers for a screen, keyboard, and Internet.

    I have a clockworkpi uConsole with the R-01 RiscV board and a cellular modem that works great but again we're back to square 1 since I couldn't find much auditing done on the chip and I have not personally opened up any of mine. Although if my memory serves me right the sister core (XuanTie C910) had some holes in it so I guess it's good someone looked at part of the family at least and published it. Also if I'm not mistaken the modem has an Arm in it running who knows what too like any other modem. The only auditable modem firmware I know of is the one for the pinephones.

    Within the rabbit hole, I think I'd trust anything between:

    • My own, or some other people's, discrete transistors or vacuum tubes and diodes.
    • Most hardware made before ~1985 Ofc, running entirely FOSS.

    Idk what the upper limit is though I'd like to know.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 1 year ago

    fellow u-console owner! i have the a-06. the modem is shite, in my experience. i can't say for sure but i'd guess it's arm. the pinephone (pro) uses the eg25-g (as i discuss in the article), which runs an android bootloader, older linux kernel, and generic gnu(?) userland. the bootloader, kernel, and userland are all FOSS (well, they can be flashed to be, anyway). the ADSP (the code that directly interfaces with the radios) is proprietary, for practical and regulatory reasons. this doesn't really effect my threat model, as i assume that anything a sophisticated attacker could glean from an ADSP backdoor they could much more easily glean through the radio traffic itself. the TZ (arm trustzone) firmware is also proprietary, for technical reasons. iirc it's signed by ARM, but this is just off the top of my head, so don't quote me! or do, i'm not your dad...

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    • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    ~1600 hours uptime... no rebooting after patching?

    You... you do patch your web server... don't you...?

    But, a good blog... must give my BIOSes a good looking at and see if I can change some of mine

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    • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Good work!

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    • [+] 2 points 1 year ago (13 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 5 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    you hate lower-case or monospace? hopefully not dr seuss, too, or shoo, shoo, you!

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  • [+] 2 points 1 year ago* (11 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 7 points 1 year ago* (10 children)

    I COULD MAKE IT ALL UPPERCASE IF THAT'S BETTER SPV.SH/BLOG/POSTS/LIVING_FOSS_UPPERCASE.MD

    EDIT: UPPERCASE

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  • [+] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    not familiar, though i'm not much of a horror guy myself

    i'm gonna assume based on context it's the kind of work my senior-year english teacher would have spent two classes having us discuss the meaning behind the punctuation (or lack thereof) and capitalization, with my attention divided between [i have redacted this for several reasons...]

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    What is your reasoning for not just using capital letters where grammar requires it? I agree with OP, it makes it very annoying to read the way it is now.

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