Holiday Shopping 2023: FSF Endorses 802.11n WiFi, Opteron Boards & USB To Parallel Printer Cable

The Free Software Foundation this week published their 2023 holiday shopping guide for services and products that comply with their pure free software standards, such as computer hardware devices that "respect your freedom" regardless of hardware age.

The Free Software Foundation published its 14th annual "Ethical Tech Giving Guide" that recommends smartphones using Android-derived Replicant OS and to steer away from iPhones, for desktop computers they recommend a "Vikings D8" desktop as an ASUS motherboard flashed with Libreboot/Coreboot back from the AMD Opteron days, mini 802.11n WiFi adapters, DRM-free ebooks, and to stay away from Amazon.

The FSF's hardware recommendations for the 2023 holiday shopping season are difficult to grasp except for among the most free software purists. The Vikings D8 is an ASUS KGPE-D16 motherboard flashed with Coreboot-downstream Libreboot. The ASUS KGPE-D16 is from the AMD Opteron 6000 series days and has DDR3-1600 memory support. This outdated server motherboard flashed with Libreboot retails for €593,81 (~$650 USD). Besides having the open-source firmware it's hard to argue in favor of it especially given the era of today's CPU security vulnerabilities and long outdated CPUs not seeing any microcode updates or any formal security guidance -- along with the fact the FSF not liking closed-source microcode that isn't baked into the hardware. But then for those concerned about the environment/climate, these outdated "free software" systems are terribly less power efficient than more recent CPUs/systems.

The FSF Respect Your Freedom hardware guide that they recommend for 2023 gift giving also remains filled with hardware from years ago: 802.11n WiFi adapters, a USB desktop microphone, various old ThinkPad models flashed with Libreboot, USB 2.0 external stereo sound, and for someone very special in 2023 is a USB to parallel printer cable. The FSF originally endorsed the USB to parallel printer cable back in 2019. The outdated hardware isn't cheaper but often commands a significant premium given the limited scope.

There are a few more recent and relevant items that is part of the FSF RYF list such as the Raptor Computing Systems Talos II and LulzBot 3D printer but for most hardware on the list it's woefully outdated and hard to take seriously except for the most devoted free software purists. The intentions of the FSF RYF list are good but the execution is poor and the sad state of the (open) hardware industry.

In any event those interested in the 2023 Free Software Foundation Gift Giving Guide can find it on FSF.org.