Hi Paul,
Am 22.08.2016 um 19:10 schrieb Paul Boddie:
Hello,
I last mentioned EOMA68 on this list in early July, noting that I would have blogged about it, too, but couldn't at the time. Unfortunately, real life got in the way of either following up with the blog volunteers about the blogging service (which I greatly appreciate as a service of the FSFE Fellowship) or actually writing anything about this topic on my blog. In fact, I only wrote about it there recently:
...
On this list, there was a discussion about how bad modern x86 derivatives are by enabling surveillance at the hardware level...
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-April/010912.html
...but either people feel completely powerless about it or they like to talk about the situation more than how to alleviate or resolve the situation. Amusingly, all sorts of observations came up about that discussion and I even mentioned one of them here:
https://blogs.fsfe.org/pboddie/?p=1305
(Yes, SPARC might even be a candidate for an alternative hardware platform, but its supporters need to bring finance and people to the effort instead of reminiscing about Sun's glory days. The referenced discussion is, however, rather interesting to read in parts.)
...
There's an interesting summary of processor suitability done for the criteria of EOMA68 that some might find interesting:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop/updates/picking-a-processor
"It should also be pretty clear that there is literally not a single processor that checks every single box! As in, there is not a single processor in the world that is eco-conscious, respects software freedom, is ethical and accessible. This is a pretty insane situation to be in, in the year 2016."
There needs to be a constructive debate about incrementally improving this situation. Instead of "I hate that processor" or "wait for my radical SoC I've just started designing", people need to help find products that uphold software freedom and privacy while also being usable (obtainable, for the most part) for small libre hardware projects. And there needs to be an appreciation that this work is not meant to create the "toy of the month" - a gadget that is fun for a while and then stashed away somewhere - but instead to build an environment where we shouldn't be constantly needing to urgently figure out what kind of hardware we can use that uphold our values.
So, does anyone have any opinion about the kinds of projects (most likely being undertaken already) that need our attention or support? How do you envisage a sustainable computing platform? And since all discussions inevitably lament how much memory Firefox uses these days, how do you envisage a less demanding form of computing being extended to online services?
Sorry for the long message!
In contrary, I thank you for writing that excellent summary!
Michael