Alexandre Oliva's Interview about Linux-libre to nixsanctuary.com
Mr Torvalds started the kernel Linux, wrote a huge amount of code for it, manages a large community of contributors, decides when it's time to release and when it's time to test a little more.
I did not start Linux-libre (Jeff Moe did), there's been little room for contributors (programming the bots doesn't take so much effort), and we follow the upstream release schedule as closely as we can.
More importantly, I care a lot about making sure Linux-libre is released in accordance with the values of Free Software. He, despite having identified with Free Software till around mid nineties, doesn't seem to mind that bits and pieces of Linux don't fit in with the values of our movement, or even with the definition adopted by the dissident community in which Linux is mistaken as an icon and a shining example of something that it actually isn't.
Here I'm not talking about people who refer to the GNU Operating System as Linux, I'm talking about there being parts of the kernel Linux for which no source code is available, and whose included binaries are distributed under obnoxious licenses that prohibit modification or even reverse engineering. These parts, and therefore the whole containing them, are not Free Software, and are not Open-Source Software either. I kid you not: the famous package distributed by Mr Torvalds, held as the canonical example of Open Source Software, does not meet the definition of Open Source Software.
Open Source misses the point, but it seems to do so with a vengeance and with intent. Its exploitation resembles some faith-based businesses (fake churches) in that they are about getting well-meaning, faithful people to contribute under false pretenses: freedom-loving people are misled into contributing their time, loyalty and effort to advance projects that try to be perceived as having a commitment to freedom, despite taking positions and making decisions that progressively drive users away from freedom.