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> my G5 has not been my daily driver for a good couple years; my daily driver is the Raptor Talos II So I looked up the Raptor Talos II. It's a $7k (starting p

> my G5 has not been my daily driver for a good couple years; my daily driver is the Raptor Talos II So I looked up the Raptor Talos II. It's a $7k (starting price) workstation running IBM Power9 RISC based CPUs which are typically used in super computers. OOC why would someone want to use such a niche architecture for their primary workstation vs say an AMD Epyc or Intel equivalent?

hlandau 5y ago
The primary appeal of Raptor's products is that the firmware is completely open source. Compare this with x86, where all modern Intel and AMD systems rely on vendor-signed firmware blobs as an intrinsic part of the boot process. POWER9 has some deployment in supercomputer clusters but its primary use is in IBM servers, basically the modern descendant of IBM minicomputers. These are purchased by businesses that want to run IBM i or AIX (or Linux).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dehrmann 5y ago
  Are there any laptops this open?
- angrais 5y ago
  Why does the fact it being open source impact a product decision? Especially when that likely doesn't matter in practice, e.g., I doubt owners of the device are contributing to the source frequently, if ever.
  - gogopuppygogo 5y ago
    The more open source hardware we have the more innovation we can expect if the open source softens movement is any indicator. Financially supporting a nascent open source hardware movement seems like a good thing.
  - hlandau 5y ago
    This relates to a preference for owner-controlled computing (as opposed to vendor-controlled hardware). See: https://libreboot.org/ https://libreboot.org/ https://coreboot.org/ https://coreboot.org/ https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
  - Brian_K_White 5y ago
    The question has so much baked in assumption, ignorance, and disregard that it's unanswerable. The answer rests on fundamentals the question itself already discards. The asker has already decided what matters, what doesn't matter, and why. The answer "Because X matters." is as meaningless as the question "Why does X matter when X doesn't matter?". It's a thoughtless and effortless question that expects a thoughtful answer which is not effortless. The answer is these three assertions which you will have to just accept as given. Your question exposes that you have either never taken 5 minutes to think about things like this, or have, and arrived at some other conclusion, and so would not make these assertions yourself. That explains why open source doesn't impact your product decisions. You asked why it impacts anyone's.: 1 - One doesn't need to do a thing personally to benefit from, or value the fact that a thing is possible, nor to appreciate the difference between possible (however difficult) and not-possible, nor the difference between natural and artificial difficulty or impossibility. 2 - It matters who ultimately controls ones possessions, and through them ones life. 3 - Ideals matter.
bombcar 5y ago
The G5 was a PowerPC chip - if you continue to want PowerPC architecture the Raptor Talos II makes sense. Clearly this is hobbiest for him in at lease some ways.
wott 5y ago
> So I looked up the Raptor Talos II. It's a $7k (starting price) There are cheaper models, "down" to $4k, probably around $3k if you build it yourself; that's still expensive of course, but less :-) (I wasn't able to read the linked article, so perhaps he indeed describes the version matching the price you quote, I don't know.)
- avhception 5y ago
  He's got multiple power9 systems, he regularly blogs about it at https://www.talospace.com/ https://www.talospace.com/
avhception 5y ago
I've got a TalosII sitting under my desk, not the 7k$ BTO version but just the mainboard and 2 of the smallest CPUs. I stuffed it into a PC chassis pretty much how you would build your average x86 desktop system. Supporting owner-controlled computing was one point, but I also really like toying around with exotic systems, especially if they've got UNIX heritage :)

hlandau 5y ago

The primary appeal of Raptor's products is that the firmware is completely open source. Compare this with x86, where all modern Intel and AMD systems rely on vendor-signed firmware blobs as an intrinsic part of the boot process. POWER9 has some deployment in supercomputer clusters but its primary use is in IBM servers, basically the modern descendant of IBM minicomputers. These are purchased by businesses that want to run IBM i or AIX (or Linux).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dehrmann 5y ago
Are there any laptops this open?
angrais 5y ago
Why does the fact it being open source impact a product decision? Especially when that likely doesn't matter in practice, e.g., I doubt owners of the device are contributing to the source frequently, if ever.
- gogopuppygogo 5y ago
  The more open source hardware we have the more innovation we can expect if the open source softens movement is any indicator. Financially supporting a nascent open source hardware movement seems like a good thing.
- hlandau 5y ago
  This relates to a preference for owner-controlled computing (as opposed to vendor-controlled hardware). See: https://libreboot.org/ https://libreboot.org/ https://coreboot.org/ https://coreboot.org/ https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html https://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
- Brian_K_White 5y ago
  The question has so much baked in assumption, ignorance, and disregard that it's unanswerable. The answer rests on fundamentals the question itself already discards. The asker has already decided what matters, what doesn't matter, and why. The answer "Because X matters." is as meaningless as the question "Why does X matter when X doesn't matter?". It's a thoughtless and effortless question that expects a thoughtful answer which is not effortless. The answer is these three assertions which you will have to just accept as given. Your question exposes that you have either never taken 5 minutes to think about things like this, or have, and arrived at some other conclusion, and so would not make these assertions yourself. That explains why open source doesn't impact your product decisions. You asked why it impacts anyone's.: 1 - One doesn't need to do a thing personally to benefit from, or value the fact that a thing is possible, nor to appreciate the difference between possible (however difficult) and not-possible, nor the difference between natural and artificial difficulty or impossibility. 2 - It matters who ultimately controls ones possessions, and through them ones life. 3 - Ideals matter.

bombcar 5y ago

The G5 was a PowerPC chip - if you continue to want PowerPC architecture the Raptor Talos II makes sense. Clearly this is hobbiest for him in at lease some ways.

wott 5y ago

> So I looked up the Raptor Talos II. It's a $7k (starting price) There are cheaper models, "down" to $4k, probably around $3k if you build it yourself; that's still expensive of course, but less :-) (I wasn't able to read the linked article, so perhaps he indeed describes the version matching the price you quote, I don't know.)

avhception 5y ago
He's got multiple power9 systems, he regularly blogs about it at https://www.talospace.com/ https://www.talospace.com/

avhception 5y ago

I've got a TalosII sitting under my desk, not the 7k$ BTO version but just the mainboard and 2 of the smallest CPUs. I stuffed it into a PC chassis pretty much how you would build your average x86 desktop system. Supporting owner-controlled computing was one point, but I also really like toying around with exotic systems, especially if they've got UNIX heritage :)