New Laptop
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I've baby stepped my way into free software and learned more as I go (can do lisp, c, and python now! woot!) about editing software. I've used everything from ubuntu to red hat and fedora and all those popular not-really-gnu distros and now i'm into trisquel(since its actually freedom-respecting). I'd like to be able to get a laptop to use for trisquel now; however, to be honest with myself (bracing myself for getting slammed in the comments) I'm not ready for the step of surrendering to a thinkpad to get a free bios; however, I do want to make sure that at least everything after that point is run in a non-free way. I don't intend on gaming on it so its GPU wouldn't need to be stellar, but I'm looking for something around 8GB of ram and has a battery life of 8-9 hours and a screen size of no bigger then 15 inches. Does anyone have any recommendations? I dont want to have to use usb devices to make up for lack of functionality on the laptop (like a wifi dongle) and would like to make sure that what I get can use 100% free drivers. I'm not quite sure where to look to find hardware lists with drivers compatible with trisquel so I can look this up myself. If some kind person can walk me through how to look this information, I have no problem figuring it out myself or if someone just has a recommendation I dont mind that either.
Maybe there will be a day that I can get to a free bios, but for what I use my laptop for, the ones that are libreboot compatible wouldn't work. It is, unfortunately at this point, something I can't quite budge on. Maybe if i pick up machine or assembly and start learning reverse engineering I can help with the BIOS projects (i probably used all the wrong words there..) to get myself to that point. But that day is not today, unfortunately.
Thank you in advance for your help and responses
(i should clarify: by not really gnu, I mean they dont really embrace the ideas of gnu. I didn't mean to imply they weren't put together from the hard work of those in the gnu project)
For this case, I recommend laptops from ThinkPenguin (https://thinkpenguin.com/).
Currently, their laptops seems to be out-of-stock and hidden from catalogue (https://thinkpenguin.com/catalog/notebook-computers-gnu-linux-2).
You can inquire them via email (https://thinkpenguin.com/contact).
If you want 8 or 9 hours of battery life, you'll need coreboot X230, T430, or T440p with 9-cell battery.
You may find h-node helpful.
This looks like what I was looking for! Thanks!
You can buy a laptop with an Intel integrated GPU and prepare to change the Wifi card, buying one at http://libre.thinkpenguin.com
HOWEVER, some manufacturers prevent you through DRM to change the Wifi card. Chris (ThinkPenguin's CEO) used to list Dell, HP, Lenovo/IBM, Toshiba, Apple and Sony sa offenders: https://trisquel.info/forum/laptop#comment-79469
That was more than five years ago. Hopefully, the list has not gotten longer.
What's your budget ?
Willing to spend up to 1500 but would rather not go that high of I can avoid it.
1500 USD or 1500 CNY or anything else? If you have 1500 USD, buy whatever you like, including latest Librem 14.
If you have 1500 CNY, you can buy one L440 or T440p from dark market in China. Both are supported by coreboot. With a 9-cell battery, they provide the battery life you want.
"Willing to spend up to 1500 but would rather not go that high of I can avoid it."
In that case I recommend the System76 Galago Pro. It is 14"; base unit starts at $999 USD (on sale for $949 right now); the Intel GPU should work with FLOSS distros; the wifi probably won't though; it has Coreboot for the BIOS; and has open source embedded controler firmware. It lacks the privacy kill switches that the Librem 14 has but is also $500 cheaper. While nowhere near a Libreboot Lenovo laptop in terms of privacy/security it is better on that front than many laptops for the above reasons.
https://system76.com/laptops/galago
I know you want a libre friendly wifi but you also don't want a Libreboot system and without knowing when Think Penguin will have more laptops in stock it's hard to find other options.
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