A fully free BIOS with GNU Boot (38c3)

What this episode covers

In this talk we will first show you that a fully free BIOS firmware, is not only possible but also necessary to guarantee your freedom, technological independence and security in the long run. We will then present GNU Boot, a 100% free boot firmware distribution that accomplished these goals. The presentation will be held by Adrien Bourmault, one of the GNU Boot maintainers, whom will dive into the project's origins, goals and current status. It's getting harder and harder to find hardware that works with 100% free (as in freedom) software. To counter this, the promotion and development of fully free boot firmware is ever more crucial. Firmwares are software that sit in between the hardware and the operating system. They play a crucial role in making our computers work. However most of the time they are proprietary (nonfree). This limits users' freedom who are forced to trust black boxes. Being able to use 100% free firmwares can not only guarantee security but also enable transparency and control by the community. In this talk we will look at what is a boot firmware, and why it is essential that it is free software, and how it works in practice. We will also look at GNU Boot, a fully free boot firmware distribution: we will look at how the project is organized, what are features it provides, and its role within the movement for a fully free software BIOS/UEFI replacement. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/a-fully-free-bios-with-gnu-boot/

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