This is my first email here, so... Hi all! And thanks Devuan. (And sorry for my bad English.)
> Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 19:46:40 +0100 > From: Edward Bartolo <edb...@gmail.com> > To: dng <dng@lists.dyne.org> > Subject: [DNG] Purchasing a new computer/laptop. > > [...] > Call me paranoid but I am noticing big companies like Microsoft making > it very difficult to buy a computer or laptop without Windows > installed. > > Are you experiencing the same difficulty and what do you do when you > need to buy a new machine? My personal experience follow: (1) Computer (desktop/workstation) I assemble my computers by myself. First I prepare a sort of project, listing all the components I need to buy. I select *ALL* the single hardware components checking to have 100% Linux compatibility (have to run in a 100% free software system, with neither kernel binary blobs nor binary firmware modules). More, the motherboard should support BIOS (or UEFI) replacement (coreboot or libreboot). Some useful resources are: https://www.h-node.org/ http://www.coreboot.org/Supported_Motherboards https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Hardware http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/index.en.html https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/desktop-computers-gnu-linux and others... Also I check compatibility between components (product specifications, forums, friends/contacts etc.). Then I bought the hardware I need components (new components or, much better, refurbished or reused components if I could find them), assemble my computer by myself and, finally, install a *100%-libre-GNU/Linux-system*! Yes. Not simple as to buy a pre-build computer coming from a big company... The cost is usually the same (and often is less), but consider the unpayable fun of the hardware+software hacking experience! (2) Laptop Assembling laptops starting from hardware components (where to found them?) is too hard... So my options are: (a) buy a new or (better) refurbished 100% libre/free (in the sense I have written above) laptop... some resources are: https://shop.libiquity.com/product/taurinus-x200 http://minifree.org/product-category/laptops/ http://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/ http://minifree.org/product/libreboot-x200/ https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/notebook-computers-gnu-linux-2 (b) buy a new or (better) refurbished or used laptop which could be upgraded to became 100% free i.e. some good ThinkPad models would be 100% libre/free except for the wifi card (requiring a binary firmware)... so it is just to be replaced... some replacement here: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/catalog/wireless-networking-gnulinux Once I have the free hardware, again I install on my laptop a *100%-libre-GNU/Linux-system*! Regards -- al3xu5 / dotcommon Say NO to copyright, patents, trademarks and any industrial design restrictions. _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng