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by yjftsjthsd-h 1614 days ago
We are literally having this conversation on an article about a case where it would be useful; if battery control was on a separate controller that was flashed separately, then you could install OpenBSD and not worry about starting a fire.
1 comments

What do you mean? Developing a chip with contained firmware isn't free or equivalent to software definitions, if that feature was necessary you may not even yet be in a position where you have a pinephone the even flash a new OS onto.

Further the article has domain knowledge and knew about this issue. Making my point about the type of person capable of flashing another OS as being someone capable of understanding the risks.

I'm not suggesting that it's not FOSS firmware, just that it runs on its own controller and is flashed independently of the main system. Kind of like how the Pinephone modem runs its own Linux, but without the blobs that that uses (modems are more proprietary than power controllers need to be)
Understanding the risks is what makes a person want a design that eliminates them!
As stated before, moving the risk somewhere else does not eliminate it.
You can and should eliminate this particular risk when flashing the OS.