FSF Sponsors 'GNU Boot', a Libre, Ethical Replacement for Nonfree BIOS Or UEFI

"Free your BIOS today!" urges the web page for GNU Boot, calling it "a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot software. GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc. So it's not very different from 100% free GNU/Linux distributions like Trisquel or Guix.
Last month the Free Software Foundation announced they'd fiscally sponsor the project: "The BIOS is a delicate but essential part of software freedom for computing today," said Zoë Kooyman, executive director of the FSF. "GNU Boot aims to make sure that we can continue using our computers in freedom. With the way it builds on the work of others to replace UEFI, we know it can remain firm in the free software philosophy and stay vital to digital autonomy and user freedom." Free boot firmware, such as GNU Boot, is responsible for loading the computer's operating system.

The work done by GNU Boot contributors has similarities to work done by GNU/Linux distributions: they package software like Coreboot or GNU GRUB, contribute to the upstream repositories of these projects, and assist them with documentation, among other tasks... When asked about their project joining the FSF's fiscal sponsorship program, co-maintainer Adrien Bourmault stated: "Making this decision with the FSF allows us to focus more on what we do best: writing and debugging code that keeps our machines fully free." Projects whose scope and purpose align with the FSF's mission and further mission-related activities can become fiscally sponsored by joining the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund.

Re:

[groobly]

Hey, I use 15 year old hardware and it works just fine for 99% of what I need it for. Then again, the existing bios on that hardware is adequate..

Re:

[cruff]

It's also supported on some newer hardware like Framework and System 76 systems.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

My Xeon E5-2650 v2 from 2013 is still chugging along. Although I bought it in 2019 as a NOS/server-pull so it's only 7 years old for me.

Great idea!

[MpVpRb]

...in theory.
In practice, supporting the full range of modern hardware will be a colossal challenge, especially if it's undocumented

Re:

[gweihir]

That depends. For example, a Linux kernel basically clears everything out and does everything itself. Hence the drivers for most hardware can be taken from that. Also note that for booting you only need a small part of the "full range of modern hardware" to work and there are quite a few standardized interfaces for storage.

Re:

[cruff]

The big problem Coreboot faces is the initialization of the chipset and configuring memory timings, which sometimes requires documents under NDA or time consuming reverse engineering.

Re:

[dfghjk]

Actually you need a large part of the "full range of modern hardware", you just don't need a lot of I/O. Unless you want to network boot, of course.

All of the processor, all of the memory, all of anything to do with memory, PCI, possibly USB. It would be easier to enumerate what wouldn't be needed. And most is this is supported in "BIOS" while not documented publicly.

Yes, OSes generally "resupport" this hardware, but the OS needs to be loaded, "standardized interfaces for storage" are only the last step.

Hasn't This Already Been Done?

[SlashbotAgent]

Hasn't this already been done, ages ago? What's non-free about OVMF EUFI, which is itself based on TianoCore EDK II.

Is TianoCore EDK II, a BSD licensed EUFI implementation, non-free?

Even Microsoft released Project Mu, an open source EUFI boot loader based on a TianoCore EDK II fork.

ethical?

[dfghjk]

If using hardware is ethical, then using the BIOS that is included with and is part of the hardware is also ethical. Cannot be otherwise.

You would think people would tire of RMS's silly lies. There is no end to RMS's desire to take your work for free.