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From the article: >Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex:

by paxcoder 10mo ago

From the article: >Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfault library, and others). Optional non-free web services, like Wispr-flow API speech recognizer, are also used. These non-free software components are not required - you can compile and run Pebble watch software without them. This will always be the case. More non-free software components may appear in our software in the future. The core Pebble watch software stack (everything you need to use your Pebble watch) will always be open source. 100% should mean 100%

darkwater 10mo ago
If they are not mandatory it's 100%. Otherwise according to your standard, Debian is not 100% free software either.
- bayindirh 10mo ago
  Debian doesn't advertise itself as 100% open source, either. Main and Contrib has to obey DFSG guidelines, and there's an optional non-free repository which you can enable if you prefer. Firmware is a gnarly can of worms though, and while I prefer 100% free firmware myself, companies are not brave enough to open that part of their ecosystem, yet, if ever.
  - aallaall 10mo ago
    Companies typically move more and more functionality to closed firmware, so they can ”open source” a thin wrapper, like a driver, that is often completely useless, and often encumbered with cryptography restrictions, strict trademarks and software patents anyway.
    - bayindirh 10mo ago
      This is not always true. NVIDIA does exactly what you said. Move everything to firmware and closed GL libraries, and open source a kernel module to facilitate communication. They even created different firmware versions to prevent open source drivers to use the whole card. AMD did the inverse: They re-implemented a fully open driver from scratch, opened up the specs, made every part which they can make (legally) accessible, accessible, open sourced ROCm and send in packages to major distributions' (main / open source) repositories. Their firmware is closed source, but it's obtainable and doesn't require signatures to enable the card. They even clashed with HDMI forums to make a libre implementation of v2.1, but the forum basically threatened them. Intel's graphics drivers are basically the same with AMD. Broadcom / Intel / Realtek NICs work without their respective firmware blobs, yet their offloading capabilities are disabled. Either way, the drivers are completely open source and in the kernel mainline. Same for most sound cards sans Creative Labs. I want to hit them with a foam cluebat so bad. Logitech's all stuff works with open drivers. They are the primary contributor to V4L standard, standardize their webcam interfaces and provide drivers or help. Do you have any examples in mind?
- paxcoder 10mo ago
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rnewme 10mo ago
100% of their own software.
- paxcoder 10mo ago
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wafflemaker 10mo ago
IMHO, it's much closer to 100% than an iWatch or a Garmin.
- aallaall 10mo ago
  1% is closer to 100%, than 0% is, yes.
RobotToaster 10mo ago
> More non-free software components may appear in our software in the future. That sounds ominous. I can understand not being able to remove non-free dependencies that were used previously, but that sounds like they intend to create new non-free components.

darkwater 10mo ago

If they are not mandatory it's 100%. Otherwise according to your standard, Debian is not 100% free software either.

bayindirh 10mo ago
Debian doesn't advertise itself as 100% open source, either. Main and Contrib has to obey DFSG guidelines, and there's an optional non-free repository which you can enable if you prefer. Firmware is a gnarly can of worms though, and while I prefer 100% free firmware myself, companies are not brave enough to open that part of their ecosystem, yet, if ever.
- aallaall 10mo ago
  Companies typically move more and more functionality to closed firmware, so they can ”open source” a thin wrapper, like a driver, that is often completely useless, and often encumbered with cryptography restrictions, strict trademarks and software patents anyway.
  - bayindirh 10mo ago
    This is not always true. NVIDIA does exactly what you said. Move everything to firmware and closed GL libraries, and open source a kernel module to facilitate communication. They even created different firmware versions to prevent open source drivers to use the whole card. AMD did the inverse: They re-implemented a fully open driver from scratch, opened up the specs, made every part which they can make (legally) accessible, accessible, open sourced ROCm and send in packages to major distributions' (main / open source) repositories. Their firmware is closed source, but it's obtainable and doesn't require signatures to enable the card. They even clashed with HDMI forums to make a libre implementation of v2.1, but the forum basically threatened them. Intel's graphics drivers are basically the same with AMD. Broadcom / Intel / Realtek NICs work without their respective firmware blobs, yet their offloading capabilities are disabled. Either way, the drivers are completely open source and in the kernel mainline. Same for most sound cards sans Creative Labs. I want to hit them with a foam cluebat so bad. Logitech's all stuff works with open drivers. They are the primary contributor to V4L standard, standardize their webcam interfaces and provide drivers or help. Do you have any examples in mind?
paxcoder 10mo ago
[dead]

rnewme 10mo ago

100% of their own software.

paxcoder 10mo ago
[dead]

wafflemaker 10mo ago

IMHO, it's much closer to 100% than an iWatch or a Garmin.

aallaall 10mo ago
1% is closer to 100%, than 0% is, yes.

RobotToaster 10mo ago

> More non-free software components may appear in our software in the future. That sounds ominous. I can understand not being able to remove non-free dependencies that were used previously, but that sounds like they intend to create new non-free components.