Is this something we (as consumers of FreeBSD) need to be aware of?

[Alejandro Imass]

On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:52 PM, Dave U. Random
<anonymous at anonymitaet-im-inter.net> wrote:
> Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:47:11 +0100, Matthew Seaman wrote:
>> > Having to pay Verisign instead of Microsoft makes no difference: the
>> > point is why should I have to pay anything to a third party in order to
>> > run whatever OS I want on a piece of hardware I own?
>
> It's time to dump the Intel/Microshaft mafia forever. FreeBSD, OpenBSD,
> NetBSD, and even Linux have ports to many platforms. Why stay on Intel? It's
> an overgrown ugly mess.
>
> We need to stop buying Intel mafiaware with preinstalled Microshaft mafiware
> and run a free (or in the case of Linux "apparently free") OS on free
> hardware.
>

But this is more to do with the BIOS than with Intel as such. Wasn't
there a FreeBIOS, later LinuxBIOS, now coreboot I believe..?
So replacing the BIOS entirely wouldn't suffice to override all this nonsense?