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Qubes OS will ship pre-installed on Purism’s security-focused Librem 13 laptop

(arstechnica.com)
154 points walterbell | 6 comments | 15 Dec 15 07:52 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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INTPenis ◴[15 Dec 15 09:24 UTC] No.10736741[source]▶
Since I'm completely surprised by this project and very attracted to it I thought it was best to google around for some perspective. Found this http://www.pcworld.com/article/2960524/laptop-computers/why-...

Among other things. My first question was, is the hardware open? Couldn't find an answer to that.

Edit: Apparently revision 2 of Purism will possibly have Coreboot.

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creshal ◴[15 Dec 15 09:52 UTC] No.10736827[source]▶
The CPU uses proprietary, binary microcode blobs.

The graphics chip needs proprietary, binary firmware blobs.

The ethernet chip needs proprietary, binary firmware blobs.

The BIOS is a proprietary, binary firmware blob.

"Respects your freedom" my ass. The only difference to a whitebox laptop is marketing. Dell's or Lenovo's linux offerings are just as "free".

(And chromebooks with Coreboot are, technically, more free than both.)

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1. dandelion_lover ◴[15 Dec 15 10:32 UTC] No.10736975[source]▶
They are not hiding it at all. Their goal is to achieve freedom in each of those components [0].

[0] https://puri.sm/road-to-fsf-ryf-endorsement-and-beyond/

replies(1): >>10737067 #
2. creshal ◴[15 Dec 15 10:56 UTC] No.10737067[source]▶
So they're selling vague promises. Getting everyone to open source their binary blobs (and the Librem has a lot) is highly optimistic at best.
replies(2): >>10737388 #>>10737977 #
3. dandelion_lover ◴[15 Dec 15 12:30 UTC] No.10737388[source]▶
They are by far the best except for the Ministry of Freedom [0], which sell FSF-certified, but comparably slow laptops. And they admit that as I mentioned above.

Only after enough users is involved in freedom seeking, it can be possible to demand large companies to provide something we need. In my opinion, Purism do a lot in this direction.

[0] http://minifree.org/

replies(1): >>10737531 #
4. madez ◴[15 Dec 15 13:07 UTC] No.10737531{3}[source]▶
What things did they do beside marketing? What was achieved?
replies(1): >>10740819 #
5. chrsw ◴[15 Dec 15 14:45 UTC] No.10737977[source]▶
You're right, Purism doesn't offer anything no one else offers at the moment. It looks like they're trying to grow a customer base then use that base as leverage when it comes time to negotiate with OEMs over features, open docs, open firmware, etc.

Since they're not at all transparent on the details about how they will actually achieve true Freedom on modern hardware, and since modern hardware IP is deeply entangled in patent and licensing issues, it's reasonable to be high skeptical of what's going on here.

Then again it can all be a scam which would render anything I just said irrelevant anyway.

6. dandelion_lover ◴[15 Dec 15 22:02 UTC] No.10740819{4}[source]▶
I am not sure whether you consider this marketing, but for me important things are (0) demonstrating the interest of customers in freedom, (1) explaining what's wrong with "ordinary" laptops to the public; increasing awareness in the media [0], and (2) working closely with QubesOS to make this system work on their laptops. Hardware switches are also very good.

And yes, it might be a scam. But might be not.

[0] (1) is being already done by FSF, but to me it looks like it's not enough.