Depends on what you mean by proprietary hardware. We certainly are reliant on
closed designs. Those hardware designs can't be modified or used by others.
However this is a separate issue from free software. The user can't modify
the hardware even had the designs been 'open'.
x86 is a problematic platform for free software enthusiasts in general though
anyway. There are non-free components and no way of changing it in the near
or far future.
Unfortunately the movement is way too small to make a dent here. A perfect
solution would involve designing from the ground up and even then you would
ultimately run into patent, speed, and similar issues. There may be some
hardware which is near 100% free. At least from a free software perspective.
They are not x86 though.
The netbook Stallman uses is a good example. It is far from a full fledged
notebook and most users would have severe trouble with it. The screen is
tiny, the system is slow, and while it generally works it's not remotely
practical for day to day use unless you are Richard Stallman. Not to mention
you can't actually get the thing and the newer version which is coming out
won't be free software friendly.
Now there probably could be changes made to the older design that would keep
it free, improve its usability, and slightly increase the speed. It still
however would be far from the experience you expect from even a basic system.
And after all this it wouldn't run Trisquel. However it may be possible to
get a mini version of Trisquel running if Rubén had the time and resources
to work on it.
Our hardware is as free as I see it getting for a while.
It's essential for people to make conscious decisions and financially support
the free software ecosystem. Just because you can get it without charge
doesn't mean this is in your best interest. If things are going to continue
to improve and get to a point where free software can compete with major
corporations more money needs to be spent on freedom leaning projects.
Regardless of if you are purchasing movies, music, software, or hardware
think about who and where you get it from. Hardware is not the only problem.
Digital restrictions on movies and music is another good example. We need to
support companies like http://eztakes.com/. They only distribute DRM free
content and while the selection is small they do have some good movies. We
also need to fund and work with other projects looking to develop new quality
entertainment. Bypassing the entertainment industry is critical.
I think we can do it. It may take a while though. We need to work new
advertising platforms (to replace Google's Adwords), new search engines
(privacy invasive), and new entertainment sites (digital restrictions
issues). Working on getting away from x86 is also something we should work on
in the far future. I think this will happen only if/when/around the time
GNU/Linux users make up closer to 10% of the market. This assumes consumers
are going to companies that put freedom first. However even now the 2-5% of
GNU/Linux users today aren't focused on purchasing from freedom leaning
companies and that is the biggest problem. If every GNU/Linux user purchased
only freedom friendly hardware we could probably have a completely free
non-x86 solution that ran Trisquel... and even the web entertainment sites
with a decent set of content.
