You know what would be nice? An "open firmware" project,...

You know what would be nice?

An "open firmware" project, where people produce and share FOSS firmware for common household devices, replacing the manufacturer's firmware with a decrapified version.

A smart TV? Reflash it with FOSS firmware, which removes tracking, calls to the manufacturer's servers, and any Internet-connected services that you don't want?

A printer? It's now yours. No ink subscription, or need for an app to print remotely.

And so on.

A man can dream, eh.

Like 6 January at 15:53 | Open on mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

20 comments

Improving People NOT only Tech

@neil "Let us dream together!" I say!

I think that is the universe and space here that can help it all come together better.

6 January at 15:58 | Open on qoto.org

timothy

@neil would be really nice, though there needs to be some clear guidelines regarding warranty...etc.

6 January at 15:59 | Open on hachyderm.io

Pedro Cambra

@neil I got curious and there’s something going around https://github.com/openlgtv and https://github.com/opensource-hisense 😮

6 January at 16:01 | Open on drupal.community

Lars Marowsky-Brée 😷

@neil It's a great dream (and it's happening for some devices such as smartphones, to a point, or even some vacuum bots and drones ...).
For the other appliances in a household - there's just too much variety. I wish they'd standardize more.

6 January at 16:02 | Open on mastodon.online

Pierre Prinetti

@neil and trains https://www.404media.co/polish-hackers-explain-exactly-how-they-fixed-trains-that-the-manufacturer-bricked/

6 January at 16:10 | Open on hachyderm.io

flower 🌻

@pierreprinetti I opened the thread just to see if anyone had already posted this, haha :goose_hacker: @neil

6 January at 16:16 | Open on sunny.garden

William Leech

@neil That lack of 3rd party firmware and open source 2d printers has always surprised me a bit, for smart TVs as long as there is an HDMI port there is a reasonableish workaround, but really not so much for printers. Maybe we just don't 2d print enough to care any more?

6 January at 16:20 | Open on mastodon.world

Silke

@neil :) Do you know "Unauthorized bread“ by Cory Doctorow?

6 January at 16:21 | Open on mastodon.social

Neil Brown

@freiefunken I do :)

6 January at 16:28 | Open on mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

Alexander Shendi

@freiefunken @neil

Like, say, OpenFirmware?

6 January at 16:53 | Open on rollenspiel.social

Neil Brown

@alexshendi @freiefunken but for consumer electronics, unless I'm mistaken?

6 January at 16:54 | Open on mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

T. Austin Brown

@neil literally a crime in the USA, though.

6 January at 16:24 | Open on esq.social

Neil Brown

@AustinB A crime to flash a device that you own?! What offence?

6 January at 16:29 | Open on mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

@krisnelson@legal.social

@neil @AustinB in the US, I guess that might run afoul of the “circumvention” provision of the DMCA?

In the UK, or course, promoting open-source device flashing would be a violation of common-law blasphemy (tho fortunately that seem to have been abolished everywhere in the UK except NI--whew)

6 January at 16:49 | Open on legal.social

Neil Brown

@krisnelson @AustinB It is not to allow access to a copyright work protected by DRM though? It is to run your own software on the hardware you have bought.

6 January at 16:53 | Open on mastodon.neilzone.co.uk

Thomas Bonk

@neil @netzwerkgoettin I would vote for a FOSS firmware the Harmony Hub and Remote: Really good hardware but the software is a huge pile of shit. #logitech #harmony

6 January at 16:39 | Open on social.saarland

Götz Hoffart

@neil Well, it was done for the WRT54 WiFi router, which led to OpenWRT. But the hardware was ’stable‘ for quite a while. Especially TVs have very short life-cycles in terms of model generations, for what reasons ever …