Re: "really depends on one enorrmous binary firmware"
This - i.e. pluggable firmware for various hardware - is not (only) what he's referring to.
The entire GPU firmware on the RPi is closed source, to the point where you can even buy licenses (!) to enable additional features (like the MPEG2 decoder). The hardware is there, it's just disabled until you convince the firmware that you've paid for using it.
And there's no way around using the GPU and thus running closed-source code, because the GPU is what actually initializes and boots the Pi from the SD card (yes, really, the GPU, look it up!). It basically does the job of what would be BIOS/EFI on a PC. And there's no "libreboot" or whatever equivalent for the Pi.
The Pi is far from an open platform despite schematics and such being available. I get it - this was probably the only reasonable option given the price point - but if you're an open source purist you most definitely shouldn't use the Pi.
I doubt the GPU is happy to give up all its firmware, so it's actually worse than running closed source software in general. Atleast in the software case you have the option of reverse engineering it, without having to bring out a scanning electron microscope and focused ion beam workstation.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
