Re: [H-source-users] [PATCH 6/6] Add Guix system with GNU/Hurd to the distro list

[bill-auger]

On Wed, 29 Jun 2022 05:17:23 +0200 Denis wrote:
> So if users just install linux-libre on regular distributions, we'd have
> a risk of having massive bogus data because there isn't only the kenrel
> involved in making the hardware work.
> And there is also the many drivers in userspace (many printer drivers
> are probably nonfree as well for instance).

but that risk is not unique to "regular distributions" - if the
non-free software is loaded from user-space, then the results
could not be trusted from any distro or kernel - FSDG distros
can not prevent it and non0free distros do not especially permit
it

if the firmware is loaded by some userland tool, that is just an
edge case that can not be handled (because lspci/lsusb would not
report that firmware) - the firmware is probably not even
detectable in a general way; but that is regardless of which
distro is used

to me, all that the "Distro: other" would signify, is like a
dubious "maybe" - my intention is not so much because non-free
distros are an interesting source of information - it is mainly
to relax the constraint, so that new distros (not yet FSDG
endorsed) such as freenix, uruk, librazik could use h-client -
if the "other" distro also had a free text field, the reader
could use ones own judgment to decide how reliable the report is

the alternative is more patches like this one, to explicitly
white-list new and exotic distros and variants - ie: shall i make
a patch for freenix, uruk, librazik? - i just dont think that
the distro name is important information - i would rather
generalize that concern once, and be done with it (maybe add
patches like this one, only when the FSF endorses a new distro)