Libreboot is a free-software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOSfirmware contained by most computers. Libreboot is a lightweight system designed to perform only the minimum number of tasks necessary to load and run a modern 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.
Characteristics
Libreboot is established as a distribution of coreboot without proprietary binary blobs. Libreboot is not a straight fork of coreboot; instead, it is a parallel effort that works closely with and re-bases every so often on the latest coreboot as the upstream supplier, with patches merged upstream whenever possible. In addition to removing proprietary software, libreboot also attempts to make coreboot easy to use by automating the build and installation processes. The Libreboot project made possible the required modifications for completely free software variants of some ThinkPad, Chromebook, and MacBook laptops, as well as desktop, server, and workstation motherboards. According to its own documentation, it can work with any Linux distribution that uses kernel mode setting for the graphics, while Windows is not supported and its use is discouraged by Libreboot. Support for BSD is largely untested, with some successful reports while booting OpenBSD and NetBSD.
History
Libreboot was launched in 2013 to make a free / libre version of coreboot. The project was founded by Leah Rowe. Since February 2015 the project has been endorsed by Free Software Foundation. The project became part of the GNU Project in May 2016. In September 2016 the lead developer announced that the project would leave the GNU Project and in January 2017, Richard Stallman announced that Libreboot was released from the GNU project. The reason for the dispute was allegations from the lead maintainer that the FSF had fired a transgender employee because the employee reported gender harassment. The FSF denied these allegations the same day. In April 2017, the Libreboot project removed the accusations from their website, the lead developer apologised for what happened and control of the website was transferred to another contributor. Three weeks later, a proposal to re-apply to become a GNU Project was published. This proposition was not applied; as of 2019, libreboot is not under the umbrella of the GNU Project.
