carl9170fw VS bcm5719-fw

The carl firmware at https://github.com/chunkeey/carl9170fw should put that argument to rest. That is Wifi firmware source code for the Wifi I currently use.

Easily changed likely means there's a physical knob somewhere that you could accidentially poke as a layperson.

Not that you get a three year CS education, figure out how your distribution packages dependencies, install the correct embedded toolchain (good luck), find out exactly which chip is in your device, fetch the proper firmware source code in the right version, build the thing, figure out how to flash the result onto the chip / read the Linux kernel sources to figure out the filename inside /lib/firmware. That's not easy.

Even if this entire process was packaged (it is--see <https://packages.debian.org/sid/firmware-linux-free>), it probably still doesn't count (or at least shouldn't count) as "easily" changed.

There are some cards with open source firmware, you might be able to modify it to do something like that.

https://github.com/chunkeey/carl9170fw/

I care! And I know a lot of people who care, but we are still a niche sized group. I care mainly because of Raptor Computing Systems offerings, which I think are the main (only?) OpenPOWER systems available. I use a Blackbird, and I'm happy with it.

From my own point of view, I'm willing to spend a $$$$ premium on hardware where I can have assurances that from the time I boot it, only code I authorize to run is run. Where every part of the system has code that, at least in principle, I or someone else could audit and fix. People have valuable IP stored on computers and it's worth much more than a few thousand dollars.

If you just look at price to performance, you are missing the point. Also, the price is not out of line with other niche desktops such as Apple's or System76.

There's not a lot of competition in this niche. The previous system that was useful was a ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard, which could be librebooted (https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/kgpe-d16.html) I expect something new to come along in this space every 5-10 years.

For my purposes, I haven't fought with the software ecosystem, and was able to compile the very few packages that weren't already precompiled.

Here are some developments I think are worth noting:

* There is a libre driver for the onboard NIC. (https://github.com/meklort/bcm5719-fw) This seems to be the only project that cares about blobs in every part of the board.

* Dasharo https://www.dasharo.com/ providing alternative boot firmware.

* Artic Tern, (https://www.raptorcs.com/content/AT1PC2/intro.html) which is objectively still mostly a development platform (that if you're skilled you can get to work) provides a completely libre boot environment and the possibility of controlling other peripherals using only auditable code.

A few things have not yet made it onto the board:

* Flexver (https://www.raptorengineering.com/TALOS/documentation/flexve...) which would allow for verifying and auditing hardware, firmware and the boot process isn't commercially available yet.

* Ultravisor state enabling more secure VMs is still awaiting implementation AFAIK. (https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Power_ISA/Privilege_States#Ul...)

* I'm not aware of a lot of hardware that would take advantage of IBM CAPI 2.0 IO accelleration. Perhaps someone has some information on this.

* I'm not sure what the status of transactional memory is, but I'm not aware of it being used in software. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on this.

These would be nice to have, and I hope to have them in the future.

The bottom line is that this is the only hardware currently in production that is going in the direction promised by the personal computing revolution back in the 1970s and 80s and is still capable of handling most people's current general computing needs. I write this hoping that other people like me who are reading this understand the importance of keeping hardware like this alive.

Here is the GitHub repository: https://github.com/meklort/bcm5719-fw

bcm5719-fw - an alternative firmware for the network card Broadcom BCM5719;

bcm5719-fw - I saw announcement of this project on Raptor Forum. I will ask melrott, if there is intrest in introducing project at vPub.

The Talos II is blob-free. At launch, proprietary binary-only firmware was required for the network interface, but Raptor Computing Systems offered a bounty to reverse engineer and do a Free Software re-implementation of the firmware, and that effort succeeded and the bounty was paid. See:

https://wiki.raptorcs.com/wiki/Project_Ortega

https://github.com/meklort/bcm5719-fw

A clean-room RE requires one party to determine the behaviour of the original product, and write a spec for it. Then a second, completely different party must build the reimplementation using only that spec. They can't communicate with the first party through any means other than that spec. For a pretty clear example of this practice at work in open source, see the work to reverse-engineer and then reimpliment an open-source driver for the Broadcom BCM5719 NIC.

Adding to your great list, https://github.com/meklort/bcm5719-fw/ . Clean-room firmware for the onboard Broadcom NICs in the Talos II / Blackbird.