Open-source champion Bruce Perens has called out Intel for adding a new restriction to its software license agreement along with its latest CPU security patches to prevent developers from publishing software benchmark results.
The new clause appears to be a move by Intel to legally gag developers from revealing performance degradation caused by its mitigations for Spectre and Foreshadow or 'L1 Terminal Fault' (L1FT) flaw speculative attacks.
"You will not, and will not allow any third party to ... publish or provide any software benchmark or comparison test results," Intel's new agreement states .
[...] Another section of the license blocking redistribution appears to have caused maintainers of Debian to withhold Intel's patch too , as reported by The Register.
[...] Updated 12:15pm ET, August 23 2018: An Intel spokesperson responded: "We are updating the license now to address this and will have a new version available soon. As an active member of the open-source community, we continue to welcome all feedback."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @01:17AM (3 children)
There is little to nothing that is "open source" about Intel. To them, minimal cooperation with open source seems to be good for business. At such time that they might determine that open source costs more than it is worth, they'll ditch open source.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Friday August 24 2018, @01:43AM (2 children)
their network cards (still among the best if not the best) are fully open. no binary blogs and I don't remember there ever being any.
their i3/5/7 graphics are open. the video from the old atom series was not open, but the i-series is. nvidia is the closed one, in video space.
they release specs on their chipsets, too, and I'd call that 'open'. (rasp pi, otoh, has so much that is not open, and yet a lot of people don't even realize that).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @04:50AM (1 child)
Actually, Intel requires non-free firmware [debian.org] in order for their wireless adapters to function. Qualcomm Atheros released libre firmware [debian.org] for some of its wireless adapters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:44PM
noone in the whole world means wireless anything when they say "network cards". i said, goddamn! goddamn the pusher man!