Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[J.B. Nicholson]

dguthrie at posteo.net wrote:
> Tails concerns itself with offensive attacks against Tor browser and making
> programs use Tor safely; its threat model does not concern (what would have
> to be quite advanced) attacks from the firmware.

Software can be conveyed through Tor which would leverage an insecurity in 
the firmware or insecurity in the non-free software that comes with Tails. 
This is not Tor's fault; Tor's job is not to filter out what data one gets 
via a network. One such means of acquiring and running malware is 
Javascript, another are add-ons many people use when browsing the web.

Thus non-free software in Tails (be it firmware, drivers, or anything else) 
is asking the user to blindly accept that Tails is safe. If Tails is a 
GNU/Linux system, Tails hackers should look into using the GNU Linux-libre 
kernel which is purposefully deblobbed of non-free software. Tails won't 
run on as many computers as it does now, but for those it does run users 
will be able to say they are using a kernel they may completely run, 
inspect, share, and modify. This strikes me as a big step toward increasing 
the security of Tails, which I'd imagine is something that ought to 
interest them because (as I understand it) one of Tails' goals is to supply 
an OS users can use to preserve their privacy.

> (Furthermore, free software firmware can be buggy too, it should be noted,
> which is crucial in the case of wireless cards. Even the cards with free
> loadable wireless firmware still handle 802.11n frames with proprietary
> embedded firmware, on a DSP most likely. Handling those frames doesn't come
> out of thin air.).

The issue here has nothing to do with what software is buggy and not; all 
complex software has bugs. The issue has to do with what freedom the user 
has to run, inspect, share, and modify the software they use. Non-free 
software can't be fixed by the user regardless of how technically minded 
the user is or if the user hires out the code hacking work to someone they 
trust.