After looking at the free software folk and their get down I've come to a funny realization. A lot of this is tunnel culture being controlled by people smarter than themselves. Unless answers can be given to specific question which I believe nobody has been willing to ask because of a "cool" identity that goes along with a "free" lifestyle. Point one, why is it that only certain Thinkpads and Macbooks minus the desktops because that is a very small Liberboot market are able to be totally "free"? Is it because the creators of Libreboot have a fetish for said laptops? Why aren't others from that time Libreboot-able? Second why is it that no new motherboards have been made to be Libreboot-able? It has been years if I'm right sense a new Libreboot-able computer has been achieved, my gut feeling tells me that when the old Libreboot-able computers are un-useable they will declare that they've figured it out and can Libeboot more "modern" laptops. I find this lack of reason and confinement unsettling, seeing that people are willing to partake without asking these questions. Interesting still, the Intel ME can NOT harm your computer without direct access to your computer. I honestly feel like this is a cult of personality forcefully confining people. Thoughts?
Fututre of Free as in Freedom
Im certainly not informed enough to talk about this with confidence but, afaik, new mobos arent librebootable because they have to first figure out how to completely disable modern hardware backdoors and locks such as Intel ME and AMD TrustZone
key word being *completely*
Also Intel ME has direct access to other hardware, its there for a reason
Yes of course but it has been years, and the hardware being useable is now over a decade old. What's the end game? Confining? Or continuous catch up?
Just make your own hardware lol
libreboot.org
just buy a talos pc
>talos
That's a gaming computer, i don't game. This isn't about playing games.
>gaming computer
>powerpc architecture
I don't think windows can run in that pc.
>A lot of this is tunnel culture being controlled by people smarter than themselves.
Cattle likes to be herded.
>Point one, why is it that only certain Thinkpads and Macbooks minus the desktops because that is a very small Liberboot market are able to be totally "free"? Is it because the creators of Libreboot have a fetish for said laptops?
Yes, they only work on making the devices that they want/use work.
>Why aren't others from that time Libreboot-able?
Because differences in hardware would require more work with no benefit to the people creating libreboot. Unless they are being paid why else would they and how would they test without purchasing every device.
>Second why is it that no new motherboards have been made to be Libreboot-able?
Same as above.
Will this ever unironically become an option? If so, how much longer until I can build my own 100% libre computer?
>talos
>That's a gaming computer
Because the creator of Libreboot is some tranny
>Is it because the creators of Libreboot have a fetish for said laptops?
Pretty much this
Just use coreboot and me_cleaner. You'll basically have a completely free laptop.
It's the only option.
We won't have true computational freedom until we can cheaply, easily, and feasibly home print processors and ICs.
At which point you're going to see a huge explosion in interesting and novel architectures/designs.
The computer revolution hasn't even begun.
Libreboot only supports older computers because modern computers have hardware backdoors (small chip systems). It would be retarded to libreboot such machines, just as retarded as using searx.me on google chrome.
I wish the free software world at large would focus less on reproducing all the problems of the bloated convoluted corporate prison software paradigm BUT WITH FREEDOM and more on offering something different and humane, completely detached from what idiot normalfags think they want.
In particular, we need hardware we can trust.
I don't care about speed or even normal modern capabilities, I just want toys and tools I can't trust aren't botnets - I will adjust my hobbies accordingly.
Saw this the other day which seems promising:
crowdsupply.com
I've preordered my EOMA68:
crowdsupply.com
And though it's totally not ideal, I'm am considering getting the Librem5 (would be my first phone since the first Snowden leaks):
shop.puri.sm
But no OP, what Libreboot can be installed on isn't determined by some Jow Forums me, that's fucking retarded.
>Point one, why is it that only certain Thinkpads and Macbooks minus the desktops because that is a very small Liberboot market are able to be totally "free"? Is it because the creators of Libreboot have a fetish for said laptops? Why aren't others from that time Libreboot-able?
Because it makes more sense to target a limited range of popular and widely available computers that cover the use cases that people may have than it does to try to target everything. It's the same reason why the big custom ROMs for smartphones like LineageOS only target a limited selection of smartphones.
>Second why is it that no new motherboards have been made to be Libreboot-able?
Because the firmware on x86 machines, and devices in general really, has become more locked down over the years. Same issue that's lead to a smaller number of new smartphones can run a custom ROM than when custom ROMs first started taking off. Also, on the other hand, today you can get SBCs (such as ones based off the RK3288 and RK3399 SoCs) that can normally run with entirely FOSS firmware out of the box making a separate firmware like Libreboot redundant. Cheap ARM based SBCs have been the future for running full FOSS for normal consumer uses for a while now.
People have been building their own comptuters from discrete components for years. You just have to deal with something about as powerful as old 8 bit home computers and with less graphics capabilities.
>Also, on the other hand, today you can get SBCs (such as ones based off the RK3288 and RK3399 SoCs) that can normally run with entirely FOSS firmware out of the box.
Name one fully free, affordable SBC
I gave examples of SoCs that don't need binary blobs to run. You can get SBCs using those SoCs for ~$100 or less. If you need your hand held from there, this isn't for you.
give it like 25 years
>why doesn't X hardware support Libreboot?
It's literally in their FAQ. The ability to run Libreboot is dependent upon Intel, not motherboard manufacturers. It's because the Intel Management Engine (IME) is a security coprocessor that can't be fully turned off except on Core2 processors that use an older ARC style IME core that can be disabled with hardware fuses. Newer Core i series chipsets don't allow for this, and if you attempt to strip out all the firmware the machine just fails to boot, or it reboots every 30 minutes. Recent developments have changed this, as me_cleaner allows you to strip out every part of the IME firmware except for it's partition table and a single hardware initialization module. But it removes AMT, the kernel, and all update mechanisms so the IME becomes harmless.
>IME can't harm your machine without direct access
Wrong. Absolutely wrong. It has full remote access to your system. It can reflash your BIOS, dump an image of your attached hard disks, read your RAM. It can acess your TPM keys. It has access to everything. AMD's version, the Platform Security Processor, is the one that has no networking capabilities. So the PSP is a localized threat. Intel's is fully networked, and even has kernel drivers in Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
Stupid question but does unsoldering the chip containig the ME firmware will disable this or is it just crash prone (or maybe the ME firmware is embedded in a vital chip alongside other vital firmware) ?