Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Thinkpenguin says, arm is the most viable path. It is difficult to argue with thinkpenguin because he has dealt with the difficulties about free software on hardware. About arm I think he is wrong. I do not think that arm and x86 are different. Both will not release software to provide all free software hardware. Likely they will invent more features that will make it more difficult or impossible to make all free software hardware. On 32c3 this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6bJ5b8Dgoc shows efforts to get x86 hardware that is secure for the user. If it can be made and verified, it is great. But what stops intel from making new hardware that would require new security software again? That is why I think free software people should support riscv. Riscv is all free hardware if people want it. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328620_number=1. Lowrisc may one day have a raspberry pi2 performance comparable board for sale. Can't people like thinkpenguin and other promote riscv? I do not know what skills lowrisc is in demand of. And if they are common among computer people. If they are can't an effort be made to provide software?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Wow, RISC-V looks indeed like the architecture the free software community has been waiting for. It will take some years to finish this project but it will definitely be a game-changer. I think it would be better to create a separate thread about this topic as this is very important but a bit off-topic on this thread.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
appelbaum retweeted librem crowd funding. It will show if thinkpenguin and libreboot are right. To my knowledge nowhere has appelbaum explained his involvement in librem. It will fall on him, if it shows that he attached himself to what is likely a scam and he should have known. I want to thank thinkpenguin and libreboot for their explanations. For a non tech it is a difficult matter and to gather information is also difficult.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
"Purism pledged 90K to their own librem 13 campaign": https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3jyqdr/purism_pledged_90k_to_their_own_librem_13_campaign/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
And "Librem 13 Free Software Laptop Nears Funding Goals, After Self-Funding": https://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item=Libre-13-Self-Funding
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
And appelbaum retweeted an endorsement of purism.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I think your missing something big. It's less relevant what the architecture is. What is important is that we can build off it, it be free, modern, and we end up with a design that can be cost effective and cheaply adaptable if something better comes out (ie not ARM, but something else). However I think people are underestimating the power of ARM anyway. While any initial design would likely be considerably less powerful than what we expect today it's where the tech is going that matters. ARM is catching up as the majority of computing devices use it over Intel or AMD CPUs. Most devices manufactured today are not X86. They're cell phones, tablets, and similar devices that are built off ARM. I think patents are not the issue. If you try to build off 20 year old expired tech we're talking about pentium era technology. We've already got more freedom-friendly tech we can build off without going that route.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
This has happened a few times in the Skeptics community, I know that is why there is the James Randy Education Fund million dollar challenge. Here in Australia our Skeptics group (well the Sydney one) received several million dollars anonymously from a multi millionaire. It can happen it just doesn't happen often and too the degree that we all wish it could be done.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
people (men) *facepalm*
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Do you think the Russians will backdoor it like Intel has backdoored our CPUs? Why is it that there is no revenge for this, what Intel has done?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Looks like I got chris mixed up with the librem guy. Anyway the above is perhaps what the librem crew discussed. Not thinkpenguin.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
As far as the last question. No, not really, I'm not a violent person. --Chris This makes me think that the fraud accusations are true. Someone who's name was being illegitimately disparaged would be very angry. Someone who's just being called out with truth: it rolls of their back like water off a duck: because they're prepared for this truth: they knew it themselves from the begining. I will assume the following occured: Yo some freetard idiots have been piping up about now having a libre laptop, whatever the fking hell that all about is 'MARKETING OPPURTUNITY!' 'We'll use the shit they allready done (lol idiots working for free), package it up, and sell it to them for 4x the price, or more! Lol will make bank' Dude 'What?' There's opensource nvidia drivers right 'Yea, we can even use a fast vid card too. Lol, they toil, we reap the spoils!' Yo man this feels wrong, like rape 'lol!' lol! '...Lets make it look like a apple' Yea the dorks like that fg shit A non guilty party would not take that retarded cliche high road. They'd want blood. Bet you like systemd too, or just don't have any opinion on it. The concerns about the backdoor known as the Active Management Engine hit you like a broadside: because you were not in the loop enough to know such a thing existed. If anyone goes to prison because they relied upon your laptop being libre, when it has mandated backdoors in the hardware, you'd better disappear. And no obey the law is not an acceptable response.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I have accepted your arguments on why the x86 notebook cannot be made. You then fall back to the arm option. I do not like the arm option because I do not believe its performance is high enough. That is why I ask about the risc v. My questions reflects my technical knowledge. Lets say you have a risc v cpu at x86 duo core performance level. And required risc v software. You cannot take a x86 mainboard from a notebook and connect a risc v to the mainboard? If you have to make a risc v mainboard then how big a technical task would that be? Hundred thousand dollars, millions? You put emphasis on non free wifi 802.11 devices. They are for sale, even if in limited numbers. When they have been made once, maybe they can be manufactured again? In general, what importance does expiring patents and rights on hardware have?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
If only more billionaires supported this kind of project... -_- we would be hard to challenge... alas that is not the case.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Actually- yes in reference to the Russian CPU question. It's something like $5,000 a CPU for several year old tech. Utterly unrealistic. Maybe future versions will be cheaper, and a real possibility, but not currently. As far as the last question. No, not really, I'm not a violent person. I don't even wish anyone to see anybody held against there will as this too is a form of violence.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Have you looked into russian CPUs and chipsets? It seems they're getting back into the biz with their edbrus processors. Perhaps they would be willing to make a no bullshit no backdoors processor? Though they're still on larger gate sizes. It's obvious that the signed CPU programs are backdoors for the government we live under. Just read the (mis)features openly touted in intels manuals. We are just cattle, not the owners, so we may not have any privacy nor own anything truely. Also what we do have must be taken away (see systemd, and other projects that kick people (men) out for having the wrong beliefs (This was __not__ the libre nor opensource way, this is new)). IE: Depreciate all our working projects that are fairly simple to learn, replace with monoliths that are complex and obsolete our knowlege (so we won't beable to figure out how to secure it) and keep any honest people out via code of conduct. When people say words about you, do you ever wish to fight them IRL?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
24k is slave wages, who would work for that. You might beable to pay to eat. That's it. Better to be dead if that were the case.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Wouldn't he just be nailed to a cross?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
That's kinda the point I'm making. There are people who are *really* dedicated to making this stuff happen. Some people are working on it part time with 2nd real jobs and others have muster'd up the bare minimum of resources to survive, but as a result can work on these issues full time. We're funding a few of them because want the same thing (ie freedom, not for them to barely survive, but hopefully they'll thrive in time). I can think of 4-5 people who post here regularly or occasionally like this. There are some people who have also done well financially and are also contributing *a lot*. Some are working on stuff part time and some are working on stuff full time.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I hope someday someone extremely rich gets interested in privacy as in a billionaire. Personally I would love to someday do what Todd Weaver, CLAIMS he is going to do. alas I have no experience yet so yeah. pity he doesn't mean what he claims...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Is this going to come to blows? Are you both going to set a time and a place? There is so much talk.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Could you make a Libre player model of that anime girl in your avatar? ChaosEsque mod/etc of Xonotic needs some japanimation.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
What there is a lawsuit for slander? Are you going to settle it in court (where they'll take all your money in fees alone?) That's like just accepting defeat...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3h7xd1/purism_librem_has_an_lpc_bus_and_a_spi_chip_this/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I wrote Appelbaum this email. ja...@appelbaum.net Appelbaum On twitter you announced, that you are part of purism computers. This email wants to inform you, that Chris from thinkpenguin and coreboot have concluded, that purism will not be able to deliver what they have announced and that their computers probably are a hoax. You are asked to read https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed and http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/02/23/the-truth-about-purism-why-librem-is-not-the-same-as-libre/. You may read Chris' posts on https://trisquel.info/en/forum/librem13-fully-free-time. You are asked to make an announcement on twitter. --- I have not read any response on Appelbaum's twitter. Many of you, should write him an email like mine.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Hi there! Haven't read the message but I'm really interested what Jacob's most active PGP is, like which pub key should I get from common keyservers? There are so many. I'm sure that sending him an unencrypted email will backfire. On 08/15/2015 11:35 AM, svh...@gmail.com wrote: I wrote Appelbaum this email. ja...@appelbaum.net Appelbaum On twitter you announced, that you are part of purism computers. This email wants to inform you, that Chris from thinkpenguin and coreboot have concluded, that purism will not be able to deliver what they have announced and that their computers probably are a hoax. You are asked to read https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed and http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/02/23/the-truth-about-purism-why-librem-is-not-the-same-as-libre/. You may read Chris' posts on https://trisquel.info/en/forum/librem13-fully-free-time. You are asked to make an announcement on twitter. --- I have not read any response on Appelbaum's twitter. Many of you, should write him an email like mine. signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I see. And even after all that we still don't have any solution for the future. Lets says two or three years from now. Unfortunately there are a lot of things that need funding like this (be it reverse engineering or cleaning up code for release or design work / manufacturing), cooperation of huge entities, and so on, but we also need people interested in and capable of working on these things. Maybe it is feasible to make free software friendly wireless NICs for the new technologies in a small scale. “Crowdfounding” may be used to provide funding to a team that is concerned with the free software ethics.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Excellent discussion. It is great to see the growing intensity of interest on freeing hardware. A couple of years ago there was a similar sense of many things being beyond reach but the pot is simmering now instead of being kind of lukewarm as it was then, which is not all bad.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
It's not really that much different. Actually we're probably still going more backward than forward. 1. We had a free software friendly graphics chip and now we don't have any 2. We had free software friendly wifi chips and now we don't have any We can certainly design a system that is more free today- probably- at least in that its not dependent on any non-free pieces to boot (ie BIOS, Bootloader, etc). However it is not going to be anywhere near the standards of yesterday (which did have a proprietary BIOS, but at least the graphics were free).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I mean to say next generation wifi chips are all dependant on proprietary firmware with no sight of free'ing them. It might still happen, but my hopes have dimmed greatly. The people at Qualcomm responsible for it aren't being cooperative. This is a result of people leaving and those remaining not wanting to change development habits-essentially.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
2. We had free software friendly wifi chips and now we don't have any I thought that your company ThinkPenguin is selling some. Do you mean that free software friendly NICs are no longer being manufactured?.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I have sought information about risc v. It looks like they are active. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=novCbl4Wq3Ifeature=youtu.be and a risc v workshop. Isn't that defining steps? On wikipedia it says cpus up to warehouse scale. Isn't that performance enough to make x86 duo core cpu like notebooks? David Patterson is part of risc v. He is a very capable person? If you can make powerful risc v cpus, then can't you make powerful graphic cards? If you have an adequate risc v cpu, then what does it take to get an notebook mainboard to put it on? Is it a small thing? Difficult and expensive? It cannot be done? If risc v are ready for manufacturing, then are there not manufacturers to make them? Or does intel own or control it all? Ubuntu phone crowdfunding got more than 10 millions usd. What could that amount do for a risc v notebook? As risc v says, most software is or spring from public source code. And there are not technical reasons, on the contrary, that free software cpus should not be available. I would know if the notebook could be made?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
OK- Sure- we can design and manufacture *something* today or lets say tomorrow, because today it is a bit difficult. It's only being designed today. It still has to get the support, the money, the manufacturing, etc. But even once you've got that your still missing a graphics chip, a wifi chip, etc. We might get lucky with next generation graphics on ARM. Which might leave us with just wifi to fix, but that is still a huge problem. Reverse engineering isn't cheap. Do you have $100,000 to fund one person to work on it for a year? It's a skill set that pays very well. You might think people should work for nothing, but reality tends to get in the way if you want stuff to get done. Most free software is paid for by somebody whose got an interest in its existence and in some way is making money off it. Whose going to make the money off reverse engineering a chip when the people here have evidenced the fact they're not willing pay a premium for something they can get elsewhere for less?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
There is a possibility of an ARM-based solution. It's tricky to do and won't exactly be competitive with modern x86 offerings. However the designs are being worked on that may eventually lead to something better. Right now your going to be missing 3D accelerated graphics with any ARM based solution that is running only free software. The efforts to reverse engineer fell through/never materialized. An ARM based solution though would be better than what we have with x86 from a free software perspective and is what Todd should have done if he was going to do a campaign. The problem is he isn't actually designing a laptop. He's just putting the pieces together based on a reference design that already exists. There are a number of things that need to be done before a proper free software ARM-laptop can be manufactured. Besides an actual design you need an OS ARM image. What good is a ARM laptop without an operating system? There is/was at least one ARM 13.3 laptop reference design we could have built off. We investigated it a bit and there were license violations and backdoor issues which allowed a major government to spy on its citizens. In theory it should have worked for us still, from a free software perspective anyway, but a certain large government had its hands in its design. That was then licensed including a binary image to others for manufacture. Ultimately we'd not be able to get it manufactured as the companies doing so are too afraid to do business with anybody who has the source code (as opposed to them giving people just the binary). They (the factories) fear being arrested for collusion with the enemy. I'm pretty sure its this particular system that is the problem as its being given/sold to the enemy or potential enemy anyway by the state. I don't think there would be a problem had this not been the situation. It's quite interesting what you can learn from those working in the free software world- and who have connections to people working in or alongside manufacturing. I'd love to see a story on this go public, but I'm pretty confident it would be highly risky for those involved. Anyway a campaign to pull together the resources to manufacture the machines is definitely something that'll be needed.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I love it!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
More news on Purism: http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/08/09/the-truth-about-purism-behind-the-coreboot-scenes/ An outrageous twitter post from Todd attacking an actual RYF FSF certified libre-laptop: https://twitter.com/Puri_sm/status/629787848246341632 PC World did an article now too: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2960524/laptop-computers/why-linux-enthusiasts-are-arguing-over-purisms-sleek-idealistic-librem-laptops.html And so did IDG: http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/10297/insult-anger-the-fight-laptop I think parts of the articles are a bit misleading and fall into Todd's hand unfortunately. The article still leads one to believe that Todd's doing something only adding to the list of things he can't really do. He may get PureOS endorsed by the FSF, but that'll just be further used to mislead people about the laptops he's selling. PureOS is little more than a Trisquel re-brand. I don't see this as moving things along. There are already two perfectly good distributions, Trisquel and Parabola GNU/Linux-libre. Re-branding Trisquel doesn't help anybody as these options already existed. It can only be used to sell people on this idea that he's doing something and put money into his little pocket. And just to be clear with everybody- and Todd more specifically- since he seems to think I'm behind this- I had nothing to do with either of these articles being written, nor coreboot's attack on your genuinity. There are a lot of people upset with you. I contacted one reporter who you (Todd) already interviewed with and they have yet to do anything with that info. That reporter actually already had questioned the authenticity of what you were saying too (although I think it was only after the interview with you was published). The one article says If you do want high-end, current hardware, a Librem laptop offers a better free software experience than a MacBook, a Windows 10 ultrabook, or even Dell’s sleek Linux laptops, which simply plop Ubuntu on popular XPS notebooks designed primarily for Windows. ... While that is true, it's misleading, in that it's not any better than what we've already got from a free software stand point.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
There's an ARM device in development called the Pyra with a decent configuration (2 GB of RAM, dual-core CPU) with the only problems with libre software being: no hardware acceleration, ever (PowerVR GPU), probably no built-in wireless, and lower sound quality. That one fits everything into a small (pocketable) form-factor, so I suppose something without that need would be able to be given more. Choose your components wisely, and you might end up with only a few components that need reverse-engineering, and none of them would be absolutely necessary to run the system.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Perhaps we need to start wondering if purism is ... impure? Impurism? http://retro-freedom.nz/blog/2015/08/03/logo-wars-back-with-a-vengeance/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
https://archive.is/KwxhV Purism continues progressing with its grandiose plans to be the first laptop manufacturer to ever receive Free Software Foundation’s (FSF) Respects Your Freedoms (RYF) certification. Indeed their plans are grandiose. gran·di·ose ˈɡrandēˌōs,ˌɡrandēˈōs/ adjective adjective: grandiose impressive or magnificent in appearance or style, especially pretentiously so.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
The Bios/Intel-Chipset code stuff (it megabytes) is probably because of VPro, which is a backdoor (inbuilt vnc server, ram upload, etc) the US Govt wants in all computing devices. You have no course but to obey them in all things because they are the god of this world, currently. What is your feeling on this issue?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Non x86 would have the same problem: a knock or a letter from the US Govt. If you don't obey you go to prison for the rest of your life and your family is ruined, unless you physically go to war against them (which no one will, ofcourse). This is what we live under. We are peons. They are our master.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
The only way this stuff will end is if the govt that rules over us was destroyed. They are the ones that want this. They NSL'd it into existence. They ban anything males would ever want. That isn't enough. Now they demand backdoors. The only way to end this would be to violently overthrow them like they once overthrew the british. That isn't going to happen.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
As per your link: Source: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/active-management-technology In other words, the Management Engine is a back door into the system, potentially providing remote access to anyone else, including those with malicious intentions. There is a lot more information about this, on websites such as http://me.bios.io/Main_Page, http://io.smashthestack.org/me/, the coreboot wiki and more. The ME has full access to RAM. And guess what? It is proprietary software (meaning, no source code). What's more alarming, is that the ME is cryptographically signed by Intel, and only Intel has the private key. If you try to remove the ME, your system will simply not boot at all; if you try to use a modified ME, the signature check will fail and again, your system will not boot. While on some older Intel chipsets, it is possible to remove the ME firmware (and disable the ME), this is impossible on the latest gener305800ation of Intel hardware that purism is using. Does this sound scary? Considering that it's a backdoor, has full access to RAM (for instance, it could leak your private encryption keys), has full networking (the ME can use the onboard ethernet NIC or wifi), you could hardly describe any system that comes with the ME as being one that respects the users privacy.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
FSF aren't willing to endorse what is essentially a re-branded Trisquel with one or two packages added. Good.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Was the graph created for another page? I didn't realize that page was in defence of the FSF endorsement claim. I was laughing too hard at what I thought was another fumble. Someone else pointed me to the graph by itself initially. It looks like it might have been used elsewhere though (probably without the comment). Maybe not. It just seems so oddly confusing. A graph should help clarify in my mind, not confuse.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
It's actually irrelevant whether he's trying, because even if he tried, he'd fail. The microcode updates are required, as is the Intel Management Engine (read: giant backdoor), and neither of them can be replaced because they are cryptographically signed by Intel. Both of these deficiencies automatically disqualify the librem from being supported in libreboot, and also disqualify it from ever being FSF endorsed. Even without those issue, there is still the FSP and Video BIOS, both of which will require extreme effort. It will probably take years, and lots of money, and even then, you'd still have the Management Engine and microcode updates, so it still would not be supported in libreboot. I somehow doubt that Todd's company is even able to pull this off, financially, and given that his venture seems to be for-profit, I doubt that they would want to (freeing that generation of Intel hardware would leave them with negative profits). Not going to happen I'm afraid. If you want something that is libre, look at the libreboot project for starters. There are also several u-boot candidates out there (Novena, for instance). http://libreboot.org/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Chris, the FSF rejected Purism's proposal to have PureOS certified under the Free System Distribution Guidelines. Ask Joshua Gay and he'll tell you. (yes, I'm leaking this. It deserves to be put here) Suffice it to say, PureOS contains software that isn't suitable for endorsement by the FSF as part of a distribution.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Looks like I was right the first time around, though a bit too quick to post. Answering my own question the graph was used on https://puri.sm/road-to-fsf-ryf-endorsement-and-beyond/ first and Todd then revised the page to include: *NOTE: PureOS is working to get FSF Distribution Endorsement, in the above diagram we are referring to Trisquel, which PureOS adds packages to. While not archived by archive.org I was able to pull up the original page from Google's cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fpuri.sm%2Froad-to-fsf-ryf-endorsement-and-beyond%2Fie=utf-8oe=utf-8 The page has also been preserved here just in case Google decides to update its cache: https://archive.is/HBDm3
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Well, I think you can see in my version that Purism hasn't made any progress. ;) A completely libre OS is absolutely progress, it was just already done (more than 20 years ago).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed Even with the Librem 13 they're working on right now, they still haven't been able to make a firm commitment for a fully-free BIOS. I was sent an interesting email this weekend exposing more details of Librem. The text was interesting in its own right so it's been as the rest of this article. The original author wishes to remain anonymous. ### Todd Weaver (who has employees at Purism now since February, including Jacob Appelbaum) is not only misleading/scamming his crowdfunding backers and the public with Librem laptops that aren't, but also harming the free software community at large with his actions. Todd promotes his Librem 15 as the first high-end laptop in the world that ships with a fully free operating system and touts this as a HUGE win – obviously this is false, as ThinkPenguin and Los Alamos Computers have been installing Trisquel on high-end laptops for years before Purism existed. In his November blog posts he claimed with strange diagrams that the BIOS was already two-thirds freed. On the Crowd Supply page he makes conflicting and confusing statements, first saying that the BIOS does use coreboot and then saying that the BIOS is not yet free but the Librem 15 will be the first laptop ever manufactured to ship with a modern Intel CPU fused to run unsigned BIOS code. This is followed by a quote from Richard Stallman which suggests that Richard Stallman, speaking on behalf of the FSF, endorse Purism's work. This inaccurate statement about the Librem 15 is a confusing reference to Intel Boot Guard as well a suggestion that Purism has led pioneering efforts and discovered something revolutionary. In reality, Boot Guard is only a feature on Haswell (fourth-generation Intel Core) and later CPUs, so in the past all laptops with a modern Intel CPU could run unsigned BIOS code. And frankly, anyone who's built a PC and is vaguely familiar with Boot Guard could figure out how to avoid it – any CPU that is sold separately from the mainboard and BIOS can't be fused by the mainboard vendor to run only their BIOS. So, considering Todd's statements about the BIOS being two-thirds freed and using coreboot and about the CPU being fused to run unsigned BIOS code, one might easily be led to believe that Purism is shipping their laptops with fused CPUs and coreboot. However, an owner of a Librem 15 rev1 reported that the unit came with American Megatrends version 2.15.1236. This seems to be confirmed on Todd's BIOS Freedom Status post, which now since December lists Release a coreboot/libreboot for the Librem 15 after Reverse engineer, or release the FSP source (which sometime in March or so became Free the FSP/ME). Todd has said that he's in contact with Sage Electronic Engineering (a company that develops coreboot-based board support packages with non-free firmware for Intel and AMD systems) about porting coreboot to his laptops, which may very well be true. But apparently he plans to get coreboot running on his laptops after he frees the Intel Firmware Support Package (FSP, a binary firmware package that performs initialization of the memory controller and other hardware, which Intel distributes to boot firmware developers) and Management Engine (ME, an embedded coprocessor with DMA and firmware on which applications like the Trusted Platform Module, Boot Guard, Active Management Technology, and audio/video DRM run). In other words, the Librem laptops might never ship with coreboot. Regarding the FSP, Todd says that Purism is working with Intel to allow [Purism] to scrub, release, and maintain the source for the FSP, but [Purism hasn't] finalized that yet. He also says that someone from Intel at IDF14 suggested that [Intel] might be willing to share some of the needed information to somehow free the FSP per his BIOS Freedom Status blog post. Since Google and others have tried to get Intel to publish code or documentation for hardware intialization, and all Google managed to get out of Intel was a Memory Reference Code (MRC) blob for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge, I suspect that his only contact with Intel was with a salesperson at IDF14 who told him everything he wanted to hear about all of the documentation Intel could provide to Purism under Intel's Corporate NDAs. I'd like to hear more from Todd about who his Intel contact is and what they've said they might share. If Intel refuses to free the FSP, there is another option: reverse engineer its contents, study documentation (under Corporate NDAs), and develop replacement code. But that will take years of work by people with great knowledge of DDR3 RAM controller initialization and training, among other things. To his credit, Todd at least seems to have some clue of what's in the FSP. It sounds like he researched Intel and AMD systems and
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
You know what's really funny about this diagram? It's got a whole lot of filler: Recommend Free Software, Repository Freed, Kernel Freed, Bootloader Freed, and FSF Distribution Endorsement. Doubly humorous is that one of these filler statements which is claimed to be finished is factually incorrect. This is what their little progress bar SHOULD look like: https://goblinrefuge.com/mediagoblin/u/onpon4/m/what-purism-s-road-to-fsf-ryf-endorsement-chart-should-look-like/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I think no progress bar should have been used at all. A progress bar implies there is a progress. No progress at all. We can NOT call an unethical business who makes the community look bad and takes away money that could have been employed to advance some truly decent project, like say Libreboot, a progress. Therefore I think something like this would have been way more appropriate. Here it is - simple, clear and honest.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
dh...@openmailbox.org wrote: I also wonder if it would be wise to go to The Free Software Foundation or RMS and ask them to make a public comment to possibly get the word out. This seems timely since so many articles by the tech press used the FSF Partnership with Crowd Supply [...] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/founder-of-gnu-bestows-blessing-upon-open-source-crowdfunding-site/ Regarding this Condé Nast article, it's been almost 2 weeks since this article was published on 23-07-2015. In that time: - The Condé Nast article has not been revised to include links to the FSF's website backing the claims in the article. - The Condé Nast article links to the GNU Project's definition of free software, an article which contains no language describing any partnership, endorsing, or preference for Crowd Supply (or Crowd Suppy) as Condé Nast puts it. - Crowd Supply is mentioning this alleged arrangement between the FSF and Crowd Supply -- https://www.crowdsupply.com/free-software-foundation-endorses-crowd-supply-for-respecting-users-software-freedom -- but I can see how such an endorsement would benefit Crowd Supply. - I find no such article on fsf.org or gnu.org describing any such relationship. - Joshua Lifton speaks for Crowd Supply, which he co-founded. Lifton is not authorized nor trying to speak on behalf of the FSF. Here's what I asked the FSF by emailing i...@fsf.org and attaching the analytics.js file I got from Google: == Hi, I read http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/founder-of-gnu-bestows-blessing-upon-open-source-crowdfunding-site/ which makes a number of mistakes in pairing Richard Stallman with the open source movement, making it look like the open source movement cares about software freedom, and giving the impression that the FSF is entering into some relationship with Crowd Supply (a partnership, endorsing, or expressing a preference for Crowd Supply). I also see https://www.crowdsupply.com/free-software-foundation-endorses-crowd-supply-for-respecting-users-software-freedom but neither article links to anything posted on the FSF's site that would confirm the relationship Condé Nast's Sean Gallagher wrote about almost 2 weeks ago. Knowing how often people get the FSF's statements wrong, misunderstand software freedom, and conflate the free software and open source movements, I'm not going to believe the FSF is entering into any relationship with Crowd Supply or endorsing Crowdsupply.com's Javascript use until I see confirmation of this announced by the FSF. When I fetch the markup for https://www.crowdsupply.com/ I see that browsers will try to get https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js which is a minified version of JS code which contains no license description in the file, appears to have a dependency on Adobe Shockwave (a proprietary program), or Adobe Flash. You'll forgive me for misreading what the minified code says, I'm not skilled in working with minified code. I've attached the file I got from Google so you can see what I saw. I didn't run the Javascript code I got from Google and I'm not entirely clear on what it does. What I was sent by Google certainly doesn't seem to me to comply with the campaign to get websites to stop serving nonfree Javascript, and I'd hardly call Google's Javascript too trivial to consider. So you can understand why I'm confused about any alleged FSF endorsement of Crowdsupply.com. I'm assuming that linking to nonfree Javascript is not acceptable by the campaign, even though Crowdsupply.com isn't serving the Google analytics.js code. Since I've seen no word from the FSF on this, I'd like to know what does the FSF say about this situation? Thanks for clearing this up. == Thanks for the discussion on this situation to date. Naturally, if anyone can shed any more light on this situation I'd appreciate learning more.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
It's called Google Analytics, and yes it's proprietary software. The FSF recommends using the free replacement Piwik (and use it on their own website). https://piwik.org/ https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/interview-with-matthieu-aubry-of-piwik
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
RMS told me in an email that they are trying to straighten things out with them [CrowdSupply], and that they like CrowdSupply because they think it's possible to donate to projects without proprietary JavaScript. It would seem that CrowdSupply made its announcement a little bit too early, but the partnership is legitimate.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
That implies that the FSF associated itself with a site that runs proprietary spyware on the browsers of uninformed users (or users who want to run it). I am referring to the fact that most web users don't block JavaScript with NoScript or similar. Maybe you are misinterpreting a statement form the FSF saying that they like CrowdSupply to mean that they are business associates. You may want to clarify this. Apart from the fact that they intend to run this spyware, is it possible to access the site full functionality without running its JavaScript?.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Does anyone else see issues with this ...debugging... setup[1]? It looks very flimsy from this point of view. In the future, I will have to try this new method of prying off the keycaps when I start on my next machine. Generally, when I'm debugging a new board, I remove it from the machine until I'm done. Sometimes, I'll drill a hole in the side or palmrest if I need to debug it externally after the fact. It looks like I have a lot to learn from Purism. [1] https://archive.is/qb0v5
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I wonder if Todd knows that Steam is non-free (the bottom image features the Steam logo). The page also says : With so many completely free software applications available, we know there is something for everyone..., but the steam client is non-free software. It also goes against what they say about respecting users' freedoms and privacy. While the steam client is non-free software, it also spies on the user and includes DRM. This shows Purism does not care about user freedoms or privacy, since they recommend non-free software. https://archive.is/ZPsZVism
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Yeah, I saw the same comment on Reddit :P https://archive.is/F1X98
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I don't think that's really the problem though, considering that Todd's qutes regarding impossible-ness are, at the end of the day, correct. I think he's correct about that part. It's just that, when the least vague description of his attempts at freeing the laptops are quotes of things not really to do with laptops, one wonders if he's actually trying. If he isn't, he's a fraud. That's the real problem.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
the fact that an assertion from a known figure is formatted as a “quote” doesn't makes it any more valid, and often it makes it less valid, because it is taken out of context. Exactly the case here.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
My understanding is that people are getting the computers. The problem here is Todd is claiming, falsely, that the computers are ever going to be freedom-respecting the same way Gluglug's refurbished laptops are, when they are actually at best no better than Think Penguin's in that respect. Actually, it seems to me that they're also charging premiums for this; it's possible to get a laptop from Think Penguin which seems to be similar to the low-end Librem 15 configuration for around $500 less. I'm not entirely sure about this, though; comparing hardware that you don't have physical access to is difficult. It's not that important, anyway; having a more expensive, higher-end option similar to Think Penguin would be perfectly legitimate and good. The problem is they promise much more, and what they promise (a high-end, modern x86 laptop which respects your freedom) simply cannot be delivered. Purism also seems to have no qualms with adding in more freedom problems on the pretense that they're eventually going to be fixed (and note, of course, that they're already promising to fix impossible to fix problems), so that makes me hesitant to recommend or consider one of their laptops. I'd say that you should consider them the same way you would consider a laptop from distributors like System76, ZaReason, et al: look closely at the specs, replace the stock OS with Trisquel, and expect problems.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
More specifically, he'd have to prove that it's possible to either crack Intel's key (i.e. show that another, similar key has been cracked by something other than sheer luck or espionage), or somehow get modern Intel CPUs to work without ME.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
We ARE NOT THERE YET. But are very interested in anybody willing to help advance this area forward. Rather than bashing those trying to solve the impossible maybe we can work together to free it! If you promised a fully free system, the responsibility to deliver it lies entirely in you, not the critics, and if you are unable to do so, then it is your fault and the critics were right. Why should anyone else be responsible to help you deliver what you promised and already charged for?. Also, despite the fascination of society with quotes, the fact that an assertion from a known figure is formatted as a “quote” doesn't makes it any more valid, and often it makes it less valid, because it is taken out of context. Clearly you are trying to appeal to emotions so that we will ignore reason (thus committing a fallacy), but it is not going to work. Chris, from ThinkPenguin, who thinks we're a competitor to his revenue. He/They have motive to spread slanderous comments about me personally, and Purism. That is a fallacy known as attacking the man (“argumentum ad hominem”). If Chris has spread any actual slanderous comment (a falsehood), then please quote him and show us how he is wrong with actual evidence. For example, you can show us your progress in liberating the already mentioned proprietary technologies that you already commited to free. Maybe you already freed some of those things. That would prove that in fact, it can be done.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Not only the points about the community that you made, but also: 4) Trisquel is the upstream for PureOS, so maybe making drive-by comments in the community forum and saying you probably won't bother to check the responses is not a great way to treat the community around your distribution's upstream. 5) From a pure marketing standpoint, most of the people interested in a Purism laptop are at the very least intellectually aligned with members of this forum, are probably lurkers, and quite possibly members. You might actually benefit from visiting the forum more often to build up some gravitas. Chris is here almost everyday, often answering peoples' questions about hardware even though on a certain level I'm sure it conflicts with his business interests to do so. That sir, is how you gain trust in a community like this.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
https://archive.is/KwxhV Am I reading this wrong, or did the FSF endorse PureOS?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I can't tell if this chart is purposely incorrect, or if that's just a typo.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
To find out why everything Todd said was bullshit in the above post, please read: http://libreboot.org/faq/#intelme
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
One of the nice things about operating within a community where the average member has an attention span greater than 5 minutes is that snakes like this can't hide for very long. Sometimes stories like this play out with Todd suddenly making a trip to Asia to 'inspect the production lines' or something like that. Hopefully that won't happen in this case. Did the Librem 15 even ship yet? If I had put down money for one and hadn't received it I would be getting worried. You may be saving the Librem 13 backers from a similar fate though. Good job Chris
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Chris, from ThinkPenguin, who thinks we're a competitor to his revenue. He/They have motive to spread slanderous comments about me personally, and Purism. We have clearly stated since we started, that we are free from the bootloader, through the kernel, the operating system, and all software. We have known the difficulty with freeing the Intel FSP binary, even before forming Purism, I reached out to coreboot to hire developers to help in freeing this binary blob. We recently posted our Road to FSF RYF Endorsement and Beyond page: https://puri.sm/road-to-fsf-ryf-endorsement-and-beyond/ to help make it easy to follow our progress. We ARE NOT THERE YET. But are very interested in anybody willing to help advance this area forward. Rather than bashing those trying to solve the impossible maybe we can work together to free it! I do not check this forum very regularly, but you can ask me anything, I will respond: t...@puri.sm And here are some quotes regarding the impossible claim... “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela “To believe a thing impossible is to make it so.” – French Proverb “It is either easy or impossible.” – Salvador Dali “Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” – Robert A. Heinlein “Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.” – Anonymous “We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” – Vince Lombardi “Every noble work is at first impossible.” – Thomas Carlyle
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
You haven't responded to any of Chris' critisms-- rather, you went straight with a ergo decedo argument, and with sappy quotes intended to evoke positive emotion in readers...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
How sweet of you to leave quotes here for us. I see you are quite good at it. You are awful with freeing computers and actually doing something to advance the freedom of the community. But you are very good at promising impossible nonsense and deliberately frauding people, and, last but not least, you are good with quotes..
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
He/They have motive to spread slanderous comments about me personally, and Purism. Here's where we are: 1. He had the same motives to do that to Gluglug (and he didn't do that). 2. He has gained respect here not only as a business guy of some semi-free PCs, but also as a helpful member to other members. 3. You haven't done #2 (which is not a wrong thing, but) 4. His accusations towards you will be more believed here, especially if you don't come up with a dismantling of his accusations (which you haven't). Actually your post I'm replying to is definitely a non-denial denial (never mind a dismantling of his accusations). 5. Some of the things you have tried that Chris called impossible have been abandoned - at this rate the whole thing will eventually get abandoned, a sensible brain would conclude. This is not about whether something is possible/impossible - it's about whether your project is too good to be true, considering how it really looks like something too good to be true, regarding which.. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is (Basically what I'm trying to say is that the burden is really on you to prove what you're saying, and you don't make Chris share it simply by stating the fact that he'd lose a larger-than-wee bit of revenue)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Here is the problem Chris: When pressed you admit Purism is not there yet and have done so several times. This is always buried in a comment thread or the Purism blog. Where it counts, what funders see, and what customers see is that you already have the product you are actually working toward. People are spending near 2k and many think they have what you and I both know you don't. Purism's entire messaging is a big oversell, to the point that it looks like Purism is deliberately misleading those who invest. All other issues aside, which are legion, this is the point that leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. The fine print is not clear and it seems deliberately so. Some side points as a Trisquel Community member: 1. Chris has much more respect here than you do, he raises legitimate concerns, which you ignore in all of your replies. I am far more likely to believe you are not being upfront than I am to believe that Chris is slandering you. Especially when the few bits you do offer seem like hedging and back peddling. 2. Its is not just Chris, indeed the growing number of media calling you out for your shadowy marketing sudo-Steve Jobs issues is growing and is much bigger than one voice. The fact that you focus solely on Chris speaks volumes about how seriously you take all of this. 3. Again we don't know you. The first thing you do in this community when responding to legitimate concerns is to call someone who has this communities respect and has been a huge asset a liar, and a slander. Thats not getting you far with anyone. I find all of your behavior on this forum very unprofessional and that further hurts the brand you are trying to build.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
As others have said, using FUD on one of the most respected members of our community, and probably one of the biggest financial contributors to the Trisquel project, just isn't going to work here. We have known the difficulty with freeing the Intel FSP binary And yet you completely ignore both the ME, and microcode updates: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed http://libreboot.org/faq/#librem ME is required now, and the microcode updates are basically necessary. Both of these need to be signed. By Intel's secret key. You don't have Intel's secret key, I don't have Intel's secret key, and no one is going to get Intel's secret key unless they have the financial ability to buy up all of Intel, which I'm going to assume you don't. That's not even accounting for the third parties that hold copyright to parts of the ME. You're not going to just randomly guess Intel's secret key, and I don't think using espionage to figure it out would go so well in the legal department. There are only two possibilities here. Either you don't understand or refuse to accept that it is basically impossible to liberate the ME, not to mention the microcode updates, or you are deliberately misleading your audience by obscuring the fact that it needs to be done for the computer to truly respect your freedom. Which is it, Todd?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Until a whistleblower leaks the key, it won't be possible to liberate the ME. Once the key is leaked one could write a free replacement firmware using gcc. Therefore I won't buy the hyped hardware, which I think is as bad as Raspberry Pi. The Rasperry Pi firmware uses a proprietery instruction set which is not supported by GCC. The only thing that you can do with the Rasperry Pi without using any nonfree software is getting a blinking LED. Writing free microcode is impossible without knowing the microarchitecture of the CPU. Currently the best way to have full freedom is the Gluglug which has the ME disabled. It has some minor flaws that you cannot use KVM, but there is XEN which allows virtualisation of free operating systems. It should even be possible to run the GNU Hurd[1] side by side with GNU/Linux. Hardware virtualization is designed to virtualize proprietery operating systems, I think there is no need for hardware virtualization in the free world. On the long term one should migrate to architectures which do not have an A20 gate[2] such as ARM, MIPS or POWERPC. [1] http://libreboot.org/faq/#gnuhurd [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A20_line
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I'm highly skeptical as well: looking at the CrowdSupply website, none of the JavaScript code is compliant with LibreJS's standards, and very little of it is libre, kind of like what you would typically expect. They even use Google Analytics.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Well, I don't if it is wise, but I'm really sick of this, so I just sent a quite long mail to RMS with the explanation, the links and the call for an article on fsf. I feel better. :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
There is a new update on Phoronix: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Librem-15-Rev-2-Coreboot However, I don't consider this to be a significant step in the right direction as there would have to be proof first that they really installed coreboot.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Probably true if he does make it completely freedom based it would be for other reasons... although, I wish he was not a fraud. but alas can't always have what you want. :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
1600 wouldn't be insane if they were legit/top of the line compatibility without any proprietary code/firmware/hardware . Although... they aren't so yeah. Alas you couldn't be more right given the situation...
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I don't know if anybody here voted up the above post, as it got up-voted real fast, but thank you! It was a success and now Slashdot readers will now get to read about this fraud as at least one post is prominently displayed in the main thread. Thank you to those who are actually speaking up too elsewhere. I know that there are quite a few people who wrote some very good pieces and followed Todd a lot closer than I have. Your doing good work even if from the shadows.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Slashdot posted a story on Librem today. If anybody has a Slashdot account (and even if you don't) please post something: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/07/30/2024255/purism-offers-free-as-in-freedom-laptops-video There aren't enough people speaking out about Todd and the media is picking him up left and right.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Ha, yea.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
What's the link to the comment? You posted the same link twice. ;)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I'm really getting sick of this guy is all I can say. He's doing nothing for those who actually care about freedom. If he had a laptop out and wasn't claiming freedom I'd not be so annoyed. However he is taking advantage of people who aren't getting the information they need to make an informed choice and then being defrauded at that. There *are* people working on freedom respecting hardware- or working to release code-or otherwise clean up code- or reverse engineer. None of these people have ever gotten any credit. Not in any meaningful way. For Todd to swoop in and claim he's done something when he's not is sickening.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I have some more good news. There may be some more stories coming out about Todd. I've talked to a reporter who is going to contact one of the people knowledgeable about Todd and Purism (or hmm, at least do a follow up interview?).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I also wonder if it would be wise to go to The Free Software Foundation or RMS and ask them to make a public comment to possibly get the word out. This seems timely since so many articles by the tech press used the FSF Partnership with Crowd Supply as an oppertunity to plug the Purism Librem that had nothing to do with the announcement. There are a multitude of stories floating around just like this one: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/founder-of-gnu-bestows-blessing-upon-open-source-crowdfunding-site/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
We can not and must not believe anything this dude Todd says. He's obviously a deluded, unethical opportunist. His claims have absolutely no value at all. He has earned some money with the Librem 15. But that's it. The fiesta hopefully and very probably ends here for Todd. The librem 13 funding ends in a few days and he hasn't collected but 1/3 of the money. The reason is, I think and hope, finally people have seen it clearly beyond his nonsense and bs delusions. As I already said, the true problem with people and projects like this Todd dude and the Purism is that all this money could have been employed to advance (financially and consequently de facto technically) true libre projects like the libreboot community and gluglug.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I guess you can backup your claims. I read what you write. It is important what you write is right. On librem 13's crowdfunding page it says 'We hope that the FSF will grant the hardware exemption for the CPU microcode, a non-free binary blob that is cryptographically signed and locked down'. Could that happen? I regard Appelbaum a point of reference. Why has he joined purism? Does he not know better? Should you not warn him?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
This came out today on Phoronix: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed It's very thorough, a recommended read
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Lets say, amd would turn all free software. Would they be able to sell an all free software mainboard, having all rights already?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
Could that happen? It is incredibly unlikely. Considering that they required it be removed from libreboot as a condition of endorsing the X60 machines, they have no reason to backslide.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
I'm not sure what the story is with Jacob Appelbaum, but the reality is you can't trust *anything* that comes out of Todds mouth. I'd like to hear from Jacob Appelbaum personally or read something that says he's not working for Purism and it was all a lie. However I haven't communicated with Jacob Appelbaum and I'm only loosely following what is going on via the way of other people (mostly). The last thing I want to do is let Todds actions get in the way of me and others who are doing *something* getting stuff accomplished. What I can say is Todd is wasting the time of a lot of people who are actually working on stuff. He's mostly just a distraction.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
It is a pity that they don't mean what they say, I wish they meant well but oh well. We will just have to wait I guess for an ACTUAL trustworthy company/nonprofit to do what Todd claims he can do. I wish you were all wrong about him but meh I have seen evidence that you are all right. For now, Thinkpenguin or glugluguk for my future computers :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
If someone has a twitter account please link Jacob Appelbaum to the coreboot blog post and the phoronix article: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed http://blogs.coreboot.org/blog/2015/02/23/the-truth-about-purism-why-librem-is-not-the-same-as-libre/ I also want to point out that Jacob Appelbaum joined Purism as an advisor which is quite different than employing Jacob Appelbaum. If Todd is saying he's hired Jacob Appelbaum that would be quite misleading as of the facts of the situation per the quote on Twitter anyway.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
It's been discussed a few times before, https://trisquel.info/en/search/node/novena
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
tomlukeyw...@fastmail.co.uk wrote: a bit unrelated but: i came across this: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena any thoughts? seems a bit too good to be true that someone made a powerfull computer with a completely free hardware design. Despite the physical dimensions and overall appearance, the Novena does not seem to me to be a computer comparable to a laptop intended for general-purpose use such as a Librem laptop computer. But the Novena and Librem computers share the lack of a completely free software OS. I'm not sure what you mean by free hardware. The Novena page you pointed us to says that there are no free software drivers for some of the hardware they chose to put into the computer: - graphics: there are no Free Software drivers for the 3D core. There is an ongoing project to reverse engineer and develop Free Software graphics drivers. - video: there are no Free Software drivers for the hardware video accelerator DSP, but there are gstreamer libraries available. and the Novena computer is aimed at people looking for a piece of lab equipment, and less as a device for entertainment or recreational use. As far as the Novena's specs go, 4GiB RAM doesn't strike me as a lot of RAM for a personal computer anymore, but (as far as I can tell from the page) the Novena's maximum RAM is 4GiB. I'd also prefer USB3, gigabit ethernet, and a 64-bit CPU. But since I'm not doing much electronics hacking, this is not the computer I'd pick for my general-purpose use. Perhaps the Novena would be more interesting to me if I did the kind of work its developers do.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Is this Librem13 fully free this time?
a bit unrelated but: i came across this: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sutajio-kosagi/novena any thoughts? seems a bit too good to be true that someone made a powerfull computer with a completely free hardware design.
