The Librem 13 v1: A full-fledged modern laptop with coreboot?

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tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014
onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

To further explain: it's coreboot with blobs. It's hardly any better in the sense of freedom compared to any other x86 laptop with Intel graphics and an old Atheros wifi card (like what Think Penguin offers).

See here:

https://libreboot.org/faq/#librem

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

You say, it is not getting a librem computer closer to approval by the free software foundation?
Are all coreboot compatible computers non free and cannot get a free software foundation approval?

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

It has nothing to do with Coreboot. Intel CPUs post-2009 are simply impossible to use without a proprietary blob loaded by the bootloader. This firmware is signed, so it cannot be replaced.

The same applies to post-2013 AMD CPUs.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

Thank you.
>Intel CPUs post-2009 post-2013 AMD CPUs.
That stands?

arielenter

I am a member!

I am a translator!

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Joined: 08/25/2010

I didn't like the title "for freedom and privacy freaks". I also don't like the company's name "Purism". It seems to imply that freedom and privacy are something exclusively important to "freaks" and "Purism".

Conspiracy?

Soon.to.be.Free
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Joined: 07/03/2016

I'm not quite sure it's a conspiracy so much as everyday misleading advertising, on both the article's and Purism's behalf. Neither seems prepared to accept the fact that anybody who remotely qualifies as a "privacy freak" has far better, still perfectly usable, options available now and in the near future. Furthermore, they don't involve directly fueling the development of patent-armed chips built with integrated backdoors.

At least personally, I would respect Purism if they marketed their product to open-source supporters rather than people insistent on free devices; at least then they'd be effecting a net increase in liberty rather than scamming the purists they claim to support.

IrishUSA
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Joined: 12/03/2016

The thing I most object to about that operation is its name and the name of the OS they include. Purism and PureOS.

If there's one thing the Free Software Foundation, RMS, Trisquel, et al have been accused of it's "purism" and fair enough. There are many defensible, desirable, worthwhile goals to pursue in software development and hardware design: low price, high profitability, ease of use, attractive design, user freedom, open source, privacy, high security, fast performance, lots of storage, many features, widespread compatibility, domestic manufacture, minimizing environmental footprint, high wages and benefits for employees, etc. Many times, these goals are not in conflict but sometimes they are, and that's where your true priorities come forward. What wins? FSF et al advocate freedom first; whenever some other goal comes into conflict with freedom, freedom must always, ALWAYS win. You can criticize that if you want, but that's where they stand.

Now most companies, including pro-"Linux" companies such as ZaReason, System76, Entroware, etc., do not advertise themselves as putting freedom as their highest priority. So while they might be criticized for putting other goals such as latest-and-greatest tech specs, or broad hardware compatibility, before user freedom, at least they're not trying to get the benefits (like ethical halo, pre-orders, etc) of putting freedom FIRST while not actually doing so.

But Purism does. Not only by its very name, but by its repeated statements. It's trying to have it both ways. Look, if you're going to put the latest-and-greatest tech specs first, if you COULD give your customers COMPLETE freedom NOW (with hardware that supports Libreboot NOW even if it's a Core 2 Duo rather than a super duper fast Intel i7) but you choose instead to give them unfree hardware and software with a promise that someday in the sweet by and by they MIGHT be given freedom if it's not too much trouble, fine. Just don't call yourself Purists!

vita_cell
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Joined: 07/19/2015

And what about Thinkpad x220, his liberation is already on the way to libreboot. And this laptop can handle i3-i5-i7 of sandybridge and ivybridge. Anything can be cracked-hacked. If you can not to crack CPU, you can fool it.

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

The ME isn't just a piece of malware that the CPU refuses to boot without. It actually does important initialization work. That's why it was such a big discovery that you could remove only the non-essential components of the ME while leaving the essential components intact. It's simply not possible to run the systems properly without those parts of the ME, and it's not possible to replace them either.

tonlee
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Joined: 09/08/2014

>Thinkpad x220, his liberation is already on the way to libreboot.
Do you say it will get fsf approval? Will it require software or hardware flashing?