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I was reading about buying a laptop with libreboot bootloader but then I saw a whole section to screw paywall. https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/ htt

by aq3cn 10y ago

I was reading about buying a laptop with libreboot bootloader but then I saw a whole section to screw paywall. https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/ https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/ https://minifree.org/paypal/ https://minifree.org/paypal/ Their laptops are cheap and with good configuration except for CPU and graphics card. I will have hard time running Matlab on such a machine, so I cannot make that investment. Better CPU please especially when your laptop is 2.2 kg in weight.

ultim8k 10y ago
2kg for a laptop? I can remember when computers were that heavy.
davorb 10y ago
> It is extremely unlikely that any post-2008 Intel hardware will ever be supported in libreboot, due to severe security and freedom issues; so severe, that the libreboot project recommends avoiding all modern Intel hardware. If you have an Intel based system affected by the problems described below, then you should get rid of it as soon as possible. https://libreboot.org/faq/#intel https://libreboot.org/faq/#intel
- aq3cn 10y ago
  You are right. I did not read the whole part. There is more to it though. > Intel is only going to get worse when it comes to user freedom. Libreboot has no support recent Intel platforms, precisely because of the problems described above. The only way to solve this is to get Intel to change their policies and to be more friendly to the free software community. Reverse engineering won't solve anything long-term, unfortunately, but we need to keep doing it anyway. Moving forward, Intel hardware is a non-option unless a radical change happens within Intel. > Basically, all Intel hardware from year 2010 and beyond will never be supported by libreboot. The libreboot project is actively ignoring all modern Intel hardware at this point, and focusing on alternative platforms.
cryptarch 10y ago
I would not recommend their services at all, although I own one of their products. Leah is extremely unresponsive, when I ordered mine it took over 2 months for it to be shipped with no prior indication of this (it should've taken at most 3 weeks to arrive at my home), and any email response from Minifree took at least 3 weeks. Oh, and Leah billed me UK taxes instead of Dutch taxes as per the EU webshop rules, so that was a lot of fun when I had to file my taxes. The shittiest customer experience I've had in years.
- tdkl 10y ago
  I've read the "PayPal" [1] section of the website (linked at the top as "Screw PayPal" and got the impression that its a work of individuals with childlike tantrum prone personality and not someone you'd do business with professionally. Your description of the experience only nodded in the same direction. [1] https://minifree.org/paypal/ https://minifree.org/paypal/
- fnoobor 10y ago
  Regarding the taxes (referring to the EU only), Minifree didn't do anything wrong: If you buy hardware as an end-consumer, you're being billed the taxes of the originating country (in this case, the UK). That's different for most services, e.g. if you ship a laptop to Minifree and they just flash it and send it back, they have to bill the taxes of your country. If they do any of it differently, they're doing a mistake. There are other companies that can provide you with Libreboot, blob-free coreboot or other libre boot solutions on your Thinkpad if you're unhappy with their service (according to your experience that seems to be an appropriate response). Minifree doesn't stand for the quality standard for the whole "libre community" as Albert Heijn (a supermarket chain) doesn't set the gold standards for the whole supermarket industry.
  - mycall 10y ago
    I thought most mainboards let you flash your own BIOS/UEFI using USB. Why ship a laptop?
    - 10y ago
fnoobor 10y ago
It seems highly unlikely that someone who made the effort flashing Libreboot to their laptop or buying a librebooted laptop from a supplier, would install proprietary software (Matlab) on their laptop because that misses the whole point. Making some performance concessions and receiving something wholly libre in return is fine for the target audience.
- 0x0 10y ago
  Maybe they are ok with proprietary software in a ring3 user mode context, but prefee open software on the lower cpu ring levels?

by aq3cn 10y ago

ultim8k 10y ago

2kg for a laptop? I can remember when computers were that heavy.

davorb 10y ago

> It is extremely unlikely that any post-2008 Intel hardware will ever be supported in libreboot, due to severe security and freedom issues; so severe, that the libreboot project recommends avoiding all modern Intel hardware. If you have an Intel based system affected by the problems described below, then you should get rid of it as soon as possible. https://libreboot.org/faq/#intel https://libreboot.org/faq/#intel

aq3cn 10y ago
You are right. I did not read the whole part. There is more to it though. > Intel is only going to get worse when it comes to user freedom. Libreboot has no support recent Intel platforms, precisely because of the problems described above. The only way to solve this is to get Intel to change their policies and to be more friendly to the free software community. Reverse engineering won't solve anything long-term, unfortunately, but we need to keep doing it anyway. Moving forward, Intel hardware is a non-option unless a radical change happens within Intel. > Basically, all Intel hardware from year 2010 and beyond will never be supported by libreboot. The libreboot project is actively ignoring all modern Intel hardware at this point, and focusing on alternative platforms.

cryptarch 10y ago

I would not recommend their services at all, although I own one of their products. Leah is extremely unresponsive, when I ordered mine it took over 2 months for it to be shipped with no prior indication of this (it should've taken at most 3 weeks to arrive at my home), and any email response from Minifree took at least 3 weeks. Oh, and Leah billed me UK taxes instead of Dutch taxes as per the EU webshop rules, so that was a lot of fun when I had to file my taxes. The shittiest customer experience I've had in years.

tdkl 10y ago
I've read the "PayPal" [1] section of the website (linked at the top as "Screw PayPal" and got the impression that its a work of individuals with childlike tantrum prone personality and not someone you'd do business with professionally. Your description of the experience only nodded in the same direction. [1] https://minifree.org/paypal/ https://minifree.org/paypal/
fnoobor 10y ago
Regarding the taxes (referring to the EU only), Minifree didn't do anything wrong: If you buy hardware as an end-consumer, you're being billed the taxes of the originating country (in this case, the UK). That's different for most services, e.g. if you ship a laptop to Minifree and they just flash it and send it back, they have to bill the taxes of your country. If they do any of it differently, they're doing a mistake. There are other companies that can provide you with Libreboot, blob-free coreboot or other libre boot solutions on your Thinkpad if you're unhappy with their service (according to your experience that seems to be an appropriate response). Minifree doesn't stand for the quality standard for the whole "libre community" as Albert Heijn (a supermarket chain) doesn't set the gold standards for the whole supermarket industry.
- mycall 10y ago
  I thought most mainboards let you flash your own BIOS/UEFI using USB. Why ship a laptop?
  - 10y ago

fnoobor 10y ago

It seems highly unlikely that someone who made the effort flashing Libreboot to their laptop or buying a librebooted laptop from a supplier, would install proprietary software (Matlab) on their laptop because that misses the whole point. Making some performance concessions and receiving something wholly libre in return is fine for the target audience.

0x0 10y ago
Maybe they are ok with proprietary software in a ring3 user mode context, but prefee open software on the lower cpu ring levels?