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Taking control over the means of production: Free software boot
Presented by: Denis Carikli
GNUtoo has been contributing to various free software projects that either support computers that boot with only free software (like Coreboot, Guix, Libreboot, Linux, Linux-libre, Parabola, Trisquel, u-boot) or that try to (but didn't succeed yet) to support such computers (Replicant). GNUtoo also wrote extensive documentation on the topic in the Libreplanet Wiki or in an article about the Management Engine.
Description:
The computers we use run different type of software. Many people know about applications (like VLC or LibreOffice) or operating systems (like GNU/Linux or Android).
But there is also software running before the operating system is even started (like BIOS, UEFI, the Management Engine or the PSP operating systems). They give the hardware manufacturers an enormous amount of control over the computers used by users, even if users use FSF-approved GNU/Linux distributions like Trisquel and Parabola. That control is for instance often used by hardware manufacturers to give companies the ability to remotely control users computers through features like AMT, and that control is independent of the operating system running on the computer. After giving some background for less technical users, we will look from a user point of view why and how to avoid nonfree software in that area.