Re: The future of mobile computing.

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > The advantage is that with Replicant on a decent phone, you almost get
  > something as secure as a normal (understand: not recent, fancy,
  > SecureBoot and/or tablet laptops) computer.

Unfortunately, that is not so.  And we can't make it so. 

Running Replicant brings ordinary phones as close as to freedom
as they have any real hope of coming.  But that is not secure.

Replicant provides free software for the main ("application")
processor of the phone.  However, the phone has a second processor,
the "modem" processor, which talks with the phone radio network.
That is always run by proprietary software with a universal back door.

Even worse, nearly all phones allow the modem processor to take
control of the main processor and replace its software.
These phone models can't possibly be secure.

We don't know the specs to write a free replacement for that
proprietary software, but even if we did, the modem processor
would refuse to run it without the manufacturer's signature.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org  www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use Ekiga or an ordinary phone call.