[Arm-netbook] Verifying firmware

[Stefan Monnier]

>> > From a security point of view, open source code
>>  no it isn't... *libre* source code is...
> I would love to hear your elaboration on how libre source code is more
> secure than open source.  I don't see how libre have any relevance
> there.

I don't want to make the claim either, but I'd point out that lots of
"open source" code isn't really completely "open source", nowadays, but
nobody cares (because that's irrelevant to the proponents of "open
source"), whereas the Free Software crowd tends to care more.

E.g. some people think their smartphone runs "open source" software, but
all there is really is that there's some "open source" code that's claimed
to be related to the binary code they have on their phone.  But they
have no way to verify whether there truly is such a relation, nor
would they be able to install the presumably corresponding "open
source" code.

So I guess from this point of view, Libre source code is safer because
it insists on you being able to replace the binary code with one that
you built yourself from the source.


        Stefan