this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
302 points (97.8% liked)

Linux

48141 readers
556 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

You can run a free OS pretty effortless, but when wanting 100% free software, you have to dig deeper and replace the proprietary BIOS firmware.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you want a for-real free device your bes bet is a RISC-V Single Board Computer. RISC-V is open architecture meaning no hardware level spyware built Into Intel's chips.

Chris over at explaining computers managed to get kdenlive to render a video with one and some other cool stuff, you should check it out

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yeah, no you have a misconception of what risc-v is.

Risc-v is an isa not a chip. the isa is open, available to anyone.

Implementations of risc-v (actual working designs) are usually not open. They are just guaranteed to be able to execute risc-v instructions.

So risc-v is neither more nor less vulnerable to hardware backdoors than any other architecture

[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the clarification!