Expensive "Free/Libre Software Laptop" Uses A NVIDIA GPU

[brosis]

I know AMD gets a lot of flack from us with releasing source code, but... If AMD just released the source to the firmware or reformed the driver to not need it, they would've been the choice here. I think there's value in being seen as free, by FSF definitions.

Neither Intel, nor Nvidia released firmware.
Nvidia firmware is extracted from nvidia blob or reversed, so it comes down to AMD/Intel not prioritizing open firmware.
Why is another question. For example, there was need for new firmware when UVD decoding landed, so maybe firmware plays some role in interacting with hardware correctly, and there may be some protection mechanism against opponents in regard to hardware design and concepts. Tapping the correct registers etc, which may result in basically AMD opening the hardware itself. Isn`t it a bit over the top of initial goal?

[plonoma]

And i7? Who needs that in a laptop? (Yes, some people will find use cases) And makes the price quite hefty. And intel was never coreboot friendly.
This device seem so wrong in many ways to me.

Agree witht he i7 is a wrong choice.
+1 An i5 would be a better for for the price and performance ratio desired by most users.
The extra performance gains of an i7 are negligible in most use cases.

[pal666]

Exactly.
Without firmware the free AMD driver does exactly nothing.

without firmware your keyboard and mouse do exactly nothing. did heaven fall ?
as long as firmware does not run on host processor, you can consider it not firmware, but other computer behind network

[pal666]

Nobody is expecting AAA 3D gaming on 100% free software for a long time

i do aaa 3d gaming on 100% free software already

[quikee]

Agree witht he i7 is a wrong choice.
+1 An i5 would be a better for for the price and performance ratio desired by most users.
The extra performance gains of an i7 are negligible in most use cases.

There is no mobile version of i5 that has 4 physical cores, so to make a high-end desktop replacement laptop you need an i7 (I'm not saying there should not be a i5 option tough).
For me there are 2 kinds of laptop that make sense these days: either a desktop replacement or a compliment to a desktop machine. For the second there are ultrabooks or tablet convertibles which must be small and light (either 11 or 13/14 inch and weight target around 1 kg) but still powerful (i3/i5 dual core, 4/8 GB RAM or more if possible, SSD disk). The desktop replacement on the other hand must be as powerful as desktop (well at least a standard i5 4 core based desktop at least, so it needs a quad core processor, more RAM, better graphic card) but still small and lightweight (15 inch with weight target around 2 kg).

[cutterjohn]

Meh. Not a zealot. Would rather pay MUCH less for a better(and almost completely customizable) Sager NP7338, which is the successor to my NP7330 which is quite nice(4800MQ) esp. considering the price.

[pal666]

The desktop replacement on the other hand must be as powerful as desktop

impossible. average desktop has 500 watt supply and it does not include monitor

[Ardje]

nouveau doesn't use firmwares, as Intel/AMD drivers do.

Yeah, because this is not about extracting the firmware blob from the proprietary driver in order to get a working nouveau.

[Ardje]

impossible. average desktop has 500 watt supply and it does not include monitor

An average desktop uses less than 100W. A gaming rig needs 300W. These days it's about 150W per card in maximum usage, not 250W anymore.
You only need 500W PSU if the PSU is bad or you indeed have 500W needs, and hence are not an average desktop user.
I have an 850W high grade PSU (2009 gaming rig which used to have HD=4890 crossfire, even then it was way overdimensioned) , which has a load of 15W if turned off with the mechanical switch on the PSU. That's more than my chromebook uses with full brightness.
A single HD4890 setup (the crossfire was itself overdimensioned, and the airflow was bad, so I took a card out) with that rig in idle mode uses 230W. Now that same rig, with the HD4890 replaced with a R9-270 uses less than 100W idle, and +100W when I start bfgminer -S opencl:auto . If I would also use the CPU, it would be something above 200W, but much less than 300W.
So you are right on the (im)possibilties. Only the ratings are not that high anymore.
I've had my share of bad PSU's for a PC. There are a lot. It doesn't mean you bought it underrated, it means you bought something that wasn't meant to last for a year.

Actually currently my desktop uses 4W (without the monitor), as I replaced my gaming-rig-as-desktop by an armhf based desktop (odroid XU3). It is fast, and even faster than the desktops I am used at in the office. The gaming rig is now solely used for gaming stuff and oculus rift experiments. So it is only turned on for those purposes. The disks have been transferred to a nas, and the rig has an ssd to (b)cache the disks from the nas which are served by FCOE-vn2vn.

[pal666]

These days it's about 150W per card in maximum usage, not 250W anymore.

garbage in - garbage out. even r9 270x has 180w tdp. r9 280 has exactly 250w.