You may control _more_ but not certainly everything. You choose from the options available to you. You don’t control the processor internals, chipset, networking hardware, or millions of decisions behind the software and hardware. I’d say you curate, but you don’t really control.
You’re being needlessly pendantic: of course I don’t control the stuff in the cpu or the firmware blobs in the Wifi … but I control my OS and have freedom to choose a different distro or even a BSD one if I like — I love that I’m part of a community of hackers of fellow Linux nerds (and thinkpad enthusiasts) instead of being beholden to a giant company to dictate the direction the OS will take. It has its pros and it has its cons but on the whole I like it a ton more.
It is interesting: I clarify and point out the limits of your (own) control, which you agree with, but you still call me pedantic.
You didn't have to write "everything". You could have said "more".
It is so easy for open source proponents (which I am, but not to an unlimited degree) to fall into these illusions that are entangled with imprecise language.
Perhaps the answer is not to shoot the messenger? Perhaps the cause of the negativity is the realization that we don't have that much control. You knew this at some level, but your choice of language downplays it. The big manufacturers are in the drivers seat, like it or not. This reality is uncomfortable. Better not to mention it, then!
If I was being too harsh I am sorry. I mean I am open to moving from the traditional AMI bios to CoreBoot but I am not a FOSS zealot. I mean I have to get work done. So I make compromises.
You're welcome! There's a really cool hacker that's been refurbishing old Thinkpads with the coreboot bioses -- https://minifree.org/ and the sales help fund the development!
