Re: diy desktop
I am a member!
@magicbanana
> As far as I know, the main board compatibility with Linux-libre is not
> an
> issue. Wifi is an issue if you want it (but that is completely
> unrelated to
> the main board choice).
Good to know because I reed in another forum in some Asus motherboard
it's
impossible install Ubuntu.
> You can pick up any Intel board and additionally enjoy the 3D
> acceleration
> provided by Intel's graphical chipset. You also want to pay attention
> to the
> processors you can plug in: you had better take an Intel processor
> without
> the vPro technology (treacherous computing). This information is easily
> found
> from Intel's website: just search the name of the processor. Do not
> expect a
> free BIOS though: as far as I know, coreboot only supports obscure (and
> usually obsolete) AMD boards.
I found this information from Intel website, thank's.
About the AMD board, the problem is the board is useless because there
is no support
for the graphic (impossible to use x windows system) or because there is
no support
the 3D acceleration?
I ask this because the campaign for the free bios of fsf suggest to buy
AMD CPU.
@mikko
> Ni hao and welcome. However, if we're talking software, gNewSense is
> probably
> more stable than Trisquel at least based on their lineage (gNewSense is
> based
> on Debian and Trisquel on Ubuntu).
Some gNewSense users say the same thing: Trisquel is more stable than
gNewSense,
funny :-)
> One way to find out if certain hardware works is to walk to computer
> shop
> with a Trisquel live CD or USB and try out the machines, if they allow
> you to
> do that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD
Well, the problem is I want to try to do for myself, so I have no chance
to do this.
> Besides that you can try to gather general compatibility trends from
> http://h-node.org However, note that this information cannot be trusted
> because manufacturers swap chipsets without informing the buyer.
h-node website have some helpful information but lack in the motherboard
information.
thank to both
The only graphical chipsets that optimally work with Linux-libre are Intel's. Everything needed to drive them (including firmware) is free software provided by Intel itself. I believe AMD mainboards only accept AMD processors with no integrated graphical chipset. You therefore need a video card on top of them. Both AMD and nVidia cards can be plugged. Both will give you a display with free drivers. However those free drivers do not offer as many functionalities and as much performance as the proprietary ones (that you do not want). This is particularly true for AMD video cards that lack some free firmware to enable 3D acceleration. The situation with nVidia cards is better. 3D acceleration is available for some of them. You can even obtained performances that are higher than those provided by an Intel chipset (but the price is not the same!). You however need to inform yourself to know what specific models provide good performances with the "nouveau" driver. One of them is the GeForce 9500GT and is sold by ThinkPenguin: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/geforce-9500gt-1gb-pci-express-20-video-card-gnulinux
It may be true that gNewSense 3.0 currently is more stable than Trisquel (although Trisquel 6.0 is base on a Long-Time-Support release of Ubuntu and I have not had any trouble with it yet). However, Debian "oldstable"'s base for gNewSense 3.0 will stop receiving updates next year. Probably by May. Given the (very) long time it took for the gNewSense project to release its 3.0 version, one could worry that no new version (based on Debian's current stable release) would be available by then. If that happens, the user who cares about security would have to switch to Trisquel (or any other other GNU/Linux distribution that still receives proper updates).