STOP SCROLLING BROTHER

You install Hannah Montana Linux on their cars and their spouses.

you hijack cartoon network's broadcast and play this meme over it until their lawyers physically beat you to death

Strongly worded!

In theory, yes, you could make a mess, and any firmware is supposed to be certified to allow the device to be used.

In practice, this has been a convenient excuse to keep a whole chip with a separate OS in every smartphone, and it is very difficult to isolate from the rest of the system (see Graphene OS efforts).

I say all firmware should be opensource. Whether you're allowed to change them or not is a separate question... for now.

How would open source software be used to disrupt communications? What am I not understanding here?

Isn't this actually more likely to happen if it's closed-source, since the code isn't visible to third-parties like security researchers? That's why zero days are a thing.

If everything that might cause disruption was forbidden, we wouldn't be allowed to do anything. Even normal user traffic in high enough quantities can cause services to go down. No malicious intent involved.

IMO, that argument is complete BS.

Heck, if only the firmware running on the modem itself was nonfree/proprietary I wouldn't much care, but the drivers and device specifications itself are commonly secret too! Like, they sell a modem and do not tell how it even should be used, just throwing a garbage Android binary blob driver or posting the messy driver to Microsoft developer account and they don't care if anyone else is able to use the devices.

Easy, since it's open source, anyone could, if they're inclined, edit the code to do something just differently enough to cause a problem, or unlock features they're not supposed to have access to, or spoof something that they shouldn't be able to spoof.

This was a big argument against Windows getting a full Unix style socket in Windows 10, I believe. MS did it anyway and basically nothing changed. The blunt realty is that if an attacker is so inclined, they will find a way. Whether anyone wants them to or not. In the case of Unix style sockets, simply pushing the attack onto a Linux VM running on the windows system is usually enough, at most, moving the attack to a Linux or Unix system is also pretty easy but requires additional hardware (even a raspberry Pi) to complete.

As simply as I can, there's enough software defined radios out there that you can hack to accurately spoof a genuine (closed source) device with enough effort, that this argument dies on the table to anyone with the technical knowledge to know what it actually means. It's the same argument as outlawing guns. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns; which is also total horseshit in it's own right, but makes a point. They're making it hard for people (the non-malicious public) to get access to services in the way they want on the basis that it would "make it easier" for hackers to do the illegal. While it may be true that hackers will be able to do some things easier, by not requiring specialized hardware to do whatever malicious thing they want, they're effectively punishing thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who are not malicious and want open source by prohibiting it, just to make the small number of hackers work harder to do things.

Fact is, if they allow it, they need to invest time and effort into implementing safeguards to ensure that any abuse is caught and stopped. They don't want to put in that effort. The idiotic thing is that they need to put in those safeguards anyways because other tools exist that can still attack in the same manner. So they've saved themselves nothing in the prohibition, made the job of malicious hackers "harder", and punished a large percentage of their client base for no good reason.

Just an FYI, that's not illegal because it falls under the U.S. Constitutional protection of free speech; so also is printing and constructing them. Selling them or distributing guns as physical products is not protected, and is in fact illegal.

(No Mr. FBI/ATF I do not actually have those)

They're legal, they can suck a fat one even if you do have them. You can even have the files for a DIAS (but if you print a DIAS and get caught you'll be in prison for 10yr.) You can print guns just fine legally though, but only for you they are not* transferrable.

*There is some contention over whether or not it would be legal to transfer. The law specifies intent which is hard to prove, and lends itself to the "well I intended to build it for me, but then eventually I let go of it when I wanted to upgrade..." argument. Thus far I don't think precedent has been set and I certainly don't want to be the case that sets it.

I have a Brother laser printer. (I love it, but that's not important here.)

The firmware doesn't support duplexing A5 paper. I'm wondering if this is a good place to dip my toe into the world of open source driver development.

If such a thing exists (DIY paper printers), I would like to know more, because the level of frustration I have with all the major printer mfrs I've used, is too damn high.

Bonus points if it's a laser printer, extra bonus points if the components for the printer can be 3D printed (with obvious exceptions).

I just want a good, wired, network printer for everyday crap that I can use once in a blue moon for stupid documents that someone wants me to print, sign, scan and send back to them because they haven't figured out how to do e-signatures yet.... And the odd extra thing I need to print. Every time I print it seems like I need to reinstall the printer or update something to make it work. I buy laser printers so the ink doesn't dry out before I can use it. The whole thing is so damned frustrating. Also, bluntly, unless you're doing photo work, never buy an inkjet. They're cheap, and there's a reason they're cheap. Inkjet has better color representation, so photo printers should probably be inkjet, for everything else, do yourself a favor and buy a laser printer. Toner lasts much, much, longer.

The problem is the most important parts of inkjet/laser printers are pretty difficult to make by hand.

You can DIY a plotter though. Probably could figure out a continuous supply of ink to the pen too?

An open source printer, you say? Interesting idea

Well, you can buy rubber stamps?

Super agree, paper printers are a scam imo

You can buy a DIY opensource 3D printer that can print on paper by putting a pen where the extruder is and use some open source software to convert text in GCODE.

https://github.com/boy1dr/3DWriter https://indestructables.private.coffee/Turn-Your-3D-Printer-Into-a-Plotter/

• Framework laptops have open source firmware BIOS.
• The Talos II workstation from raptor computers (using an IBM power9 processor) is entirely open source including now its network card but that's a $10,000 computer
• You can make a Chromebook fully open source but it takes a little work

Vote with your wallet 👍

How exactly are you donating to Firefox? Mozilla foundation is not Firefox and Firefox is unlikely to see any money you give to Mozilla.

Every pound counts? That’s what she said

I was going to but I have no £

For preserving GPL let me suggest donating to Software Freedom Conservancy which is directly related to fighting abuses of open source / free software / libre software licences.

My hardware isn't supported

I am using phone

My laptop (well, ships in Q2, so I can't do a damn thing yet anyway) doesn't support libreboot (but I believe they're working on it?) Framework. I was more focused on the upgradability/fixibility of the hardware, because I'm tired of the typical hardware and it's anti-consumer features. Hopefully an option soon exists for the AMD 7 (or whatever the hell processor I chose for the 16.)

It's about everything. Computers, phones, the computer that makes your car work. Every bit of electronics that boots - that probably includes your smoke detector and oven

OH YEAH!!!

All of it. Computers, phones, cable modems, cameras cars.

We need it to be open, especially for networked equipment so we can keep it secure and running after the manufacturer stops supporting it.