The girl who runs minifree has had many financial troubles while trying to keep it.<p>I strongly recommend people buying products from people who are willing to make sacrifices to offer a product that respects your freedom.<p>If we do not support people like her, we assume the future risk of having zero costumer really owned devices.<p>Whenever you plan to buy a device and care about not being spied and having control over your owned device, please consider supporting vendors listed here: <a href="https://ryf.fsf.org/" rel="nofollow">https://ryf.fsf.org/</a>
"Technically, Intel ME is still operational on this laptop. However, malicious features such as Intel AMT are removed using me_cleaner. For all intents and purposes, this laptop is very similar freedom-wise to a Libreboot laptop, but it is absolutely true that a Libreboot system is superior in terms of software freedom. However, if you’re willing to slightly compromise (neutered Intel ME, after running me_cleaner, is fairly benign and does barely anything), these laptops offer a huge performance improvement over Libreboot thinkpads.<p>Minifree runs me_cleaner which modifies the Intel ME up to the point where it is only active during the boot process, but otherwise disabled during normal operation. Only basic hardware initialization is still performed, but otherwise the Intel ME becomes benign from a security perspective, providing only basic power management. Coreboot is handling the vast majority of the hardware initialization and is 100% Free Software on this laptop.<p>Proprietary features such as AMT are no longer present or accessible after me_cleaner is used. The me_cleaner program removes all networking from the Intel ME, thus removing any security risks associated with Intel ME."
I'm hopeful that open processors like RISC will be a big step in solving this. But, then there will still be all that other blob-y, closed hardware like SSDs, network cards, radios. In my humble opinion, there's something wrong with everyone having to use hardware (and software to a slightly lesser extent) that's not auditable and not patchable (by you). There should be a legislative framework for consumer protection.
> Did you know that most modern Intel and AMD computers come with backdoors implanted by the NSA and other agencies? You do now, and it isn’t pretty.<p>The mere possibility that this is true should be enough for us to seek alternatives, but is there any evidence that it is actually the case? My impression was that the Intel Management Engine was a stupid idea but not intended to undermine security.
These prices seem quite reasonable for sourcing a good vintage ThinkPad model (and spec variant) and flashing with Libreboot successfully.<p>If people want to source and flash on their own, it's definitely doable, but IME (as primarily a software person) the difficulty ranges from mild headache to a major one, based on which ThinkPad model and phase of moon. :) <a href="https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/" rel="nofollow">https://www.neilvandyke.org/coreboot/</a>
I've been using an X200 with Trisquel and Guix package manager on it for a while now. While I have another non-free machine, which is quite powerful, everytime I code on my X200 it is a joy to work with. Very satisfied with it, but I think it is a matter of expectation management. You will not be able to play modern games or display some 4K videos on it (I guess). I do not need those, when I want to be productive and not get distracted from coding.
See also h-node: <a href="https://h-node.org/hardware/catalogue/en" rel="nofollow">https://h-node.org/hardware/catalogue/en</a>
I wish I knew what the intel ME and AMD's PSP <i>actually did</i> for 'normal' users. The only time I've ever encountered IME has been in the context of out-of-band server management where it "makes sense" and I totally get it. But I <i>don't</i> get it on consumer computers. It's got to <i>cost</i> something at some level -- there must be a reason why it's worth the chip space. What is it?
This is interesting, but I'd love more details. How is proprietary firmware stripped from the SSDs, for instance? How's the firmware vetted for wifi interfaces?<p>We really need more options for free and open hardware.
Is there a typo here or am I misunderstanding something:<p>> Do you know have rights? Most computers nowadays will never spy on you and restrict your activities, but not ours! You have 100% control over your Libreboot system, free from surveillance.<p>It should be:<p><pre><code> - never spy
+ spy
</code></pre>
right?
If they are going to invoke 1984, it seems like Minifree would be a Windows laptop with WSL installed or something else that has the appearance of freedom while being completely the opposite.