Free Software Foundation Endorses Another (Outdated) Laptop

[zanny]

I wonder if they'll endorse those new high end open source laptops that we heard about a while back. The project got funded so they'll be starting production runs soonish

None of them have blobless open firmware support. The one that got kickstarted even has an Nvidia GPU. Even though Nouveau exists and works, and is practically the freest implementation of a discrete GPU there is, the fact that all the work they do is purely reverse engineering due to the colossal hostility of Nvidia in regards to trade secreting their boards, ISA, etc is hugely user hostile and definitely not freedom respecting.

[SpyroRyder]

None of them have blobless open firmware support. The one that got kickstarted even has an Nvidia GPU. Even though Nouveau exists and works, and is practically the freest implementation of a discrete GPU there is, the fact that all the work they do is purely reverse engineering due to the colossal hostility of Nvidia in regards to trade secreting their boards, ISA, etc is hugely user hostile and definitely not freedom respecting.

The one I am talking about is the Librem which I think if you go to the page and read the updates you may be surprised. One of the headers on one of the updates reads "NVIDIA Out, Intel i7-4770HQ In". Here's a link to the updates page.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/librem-laptop/updates

Seems quite promising from here with hardware that may actually get blob-free firmware. Not an expert though so if something leaps out at you from the spec list (that isn't the optional bluray drive) feel free to point it out.

[DanL]

A 60 GB HDD is not one of the options.

It was on the X60 model, which that sentence was referring to..

[aphirst]

>(Outdated)
Yes, Michael, we get it - you don't care about the FSF's definition of freedom, and think it's silly. It's not their fault that newer hardware is rife with proprietary microcode required to even boot.

[DanL]

>(Outdated)
Yes, Michael, we get it - you don't care about the FSF's definition of freedom, and think it's silly. It's not their fault that newer hardware is rife with proprietary microcode required to even boot.

Phoronixl has been critical of the FSF's high-priority projects in the past, but there is no evidence of that in this article. The hardware is certainly outdated, and calling it that does not imply apathy or distaste for the FSF or its goals. It doesn't imply the hardware is useless either.

[Adarion]

Another refurbished thing? Something you can barely buy anywhere? Spare parts can hardly be obtained? Batteries? Another intel device? Spare me, please. And Trisquel probably because it is a GNU-Linux? Ridiculous. "Linux" is more than the kernel but also more than the stuff GNU contributed.

Why just doesn't the FSF focus on real problems of today? I wonder what they are doing besides making lists of things that would be nice and important. And I doubt they had much contribution to the actual laptop, like porting coreboot or something.

[aphirst]

And I doubt they had much contribution to the actual laptop, like porting coreboot or something.

Notice that the word used is "endorse".

[Gusar]

The 4500MHD has hardware video decoders, so this thing can be used as a decent media playback device. And there's decent RAM options, so browsing the web shouldn't be that much of a chore. Unlike the previous laptop, this one is actually quite ok.

[Kano]

I don't think there was more than just MPEG1/2 accelleration available via vaapi, but the cpu should be able to decode h264 with ease in the normally used bitrates. I would never buy it however, maybe iX-5 (broadwell) or wait for iX-6 (skylake). But it is good enough not to put it away, maybe extra cheap...

[blackiwid]

I bought a thinkpad x220 am I correct that this librething x200 is the prepredecessor (is that a word) of the x220?

so I know that coreboot should be working with x220, I was to lazy so far to install it. But if they get libreboot ready for my x220 its also a fsf adorsed device and gets a new name

the new x240 (no mouse buttons) and the x250 (only 1 ram slot) sucks extremly in my opinion, and even if the x260 in one year gets back to sanity I am have to wait at least 1-2 years till I get it refurbished for a good price. I dont have 1000-2000 euro for a only working linux laptop, not to mention that the docking stations on new models are also extremly expensive (100 bucks).

So I think maybe I will stay with my x220 till its freed

thx for the work, even its a bit like a fight against wind mills. The nsa with the bios-rootkit revalations makes this now really needed effort not to eleminate a very theoretical issue but a issue we know of with certainly total worldwide police state from the us.