In that speech, rms only talks about software. Software to drive hardware but
software anyway. He talks about the problem of running proprietary blobs that
can, therefore should, be replaced by free software. For instance, at 7'45:
The microcode was just something that was inside of a chip. It might as well
have been a circuit. It was not something we had to care about. But when it
became something that users were expected to replace, then it changed into
software installed in a computer, which is something we do have to care
about.
Later in the talk, it becomes then pretty clear that, whatever the way the
free drivers/firmware are obtained (even through reverse engineering), the
hardware is, according to rms, freedom respecting.
What rms would consider as "free hardware" is hardware the user controls by
being practically able to exercise the four freedoms. Today, it simply does
not exist. We all rely on mass-produced hardware. What you call "free
hardware" is not clear at all:
What I'd like to find is hardware that is the most free, clean, known, i.e.,
known what is inside, whatever...and it needs to be available for purchase,
not discontinued.
The two points quantumgravity emphasizes (+ starchild's precisions) are those
rms emphasizes as well. I do not think it has anything to do with "free
hardware". It is all about "free software".
