why do free-software advocates completely ignore the "free-hardware" problem?
as always, there are free optionsc for us
but they are always mediocre, almost stupid-easy things like keyboards
so when will we have free optical readers or something like that?
optical disc drives
Free-software advocates don't "completely ignore" it. rms has discussed it on multiple occasions.
1. On "Free Hardware" (1999)
* https://paste.textboard.org/ca386358/raw
* https://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/richard-stallman-on-free-hardware/
2. Free Hardware and Free Hardware Designs (2015)
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-hardware-designs.en.html
The second article's section "Must We Reject Nonfree Digital Hardware?" is particularly relevant, esp. paragraph 7.
In the mind of rms, libre hardware is less at issue since you can't run modified versions of hardware as readily as you can modified versions of software. In his own words:
Thus, the four freedoms don't give users today collective control over a hardware design as they give users collective control over a program. That's where the reasoning showing that all software must be free fails to apply to today's hardware technology.
About the second part of your question:
[W]hen will we have free optical readers or something like that?
Someone would have to develop libre hardware designs, and then multiple parties would have to manufacture/implement the specification.
Free hardware will probably not become very prevalent until one or both of these conditions are met:
* Hardware fabrication becomes feasible on an individual level (not mass-production).
* Libre hardware becomes required to run libre software.
https://opencores.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCores
LibreCores is your gateway to free and open source digital designs and other components that you can use and re-use in your digital designs.
Are there free/libre bicycles?
>>1
While these issues are closely related, they are ultimately distinct concerns. Generally speaking, people who are busy advocating and contributing to the free software movement don't have any more resources into starting companies that manufacture hardware based on freely shared hardware designs. This is merely a rational economic decision.
>>7
that is impressive
thanks a lot
>>5 lel
You want freedom hardware? Start with RISC-V, and to verify - you'd have to build your own CPU and other chips, I suppose lol.
Yes, someone did manage to create their own RISC-V CPU at home, but how powerful is it? How much power do you actually need to?
I'd say that, for general computer usage - I'd need it to play at least 720p videos at 30fps, with like CPU still having some room. Preferably 1080p@60fps..
But perhaps you want to roll your shit anyways - because it's fun, you can feel important, and you do learn.. If it can play Anarch or alternatives - it might be good enough for a lot of things, just not playing videos of decent quality, which is quite important to some people like me, because - I consider movies to be quite important.
TempleOS almost got it's dedicated CPU (unfortunately fro Intel), but it's creator unfortunately died before that :d unless something else happened, too