[ltp] thinkpad X1 7th o 8th generation

[Stefan Monnier]

Bjørn Mork [2020-08-15 14:41:54] wrote:
> Florian Reitmeir <florian at reitmeir.org> writes:
>> I really believe there is no notebook out there which has no p-firmware.
>> BIOS/UEFI firmware for ssd's .. the claim is pretty useless.

I wouldn't say useless, no.  It's hard to satisfy this requirement,
indeed, but that doesn't make it useless.  Many Free Software hackers
try to address that (by working on things like Coreboot or on
reverse-engineered firmware for wifi/GPU/...) and some companies (such
as Purism) also try to tackle that.

>>>   - after installing out-of-tree drivers?
>>>   - after sacrificing your first-born?
>>>   - never ever
>>
>> it is not the fault of an OEM, that da driver is not included in the
>> linux kernel.
> We disagree there.  The OEMs select hardware components. As end users we
> can only "vote with our wallets" if the OEMs do the same.

Exactly.  I just bought a Librem mini for that reason: the vendor made
sure that it avoids hardware elements that require proprietary code.

> The OEMs can and should push back, and they can also independently work
> on Linux support.

Yes, there's a range of things they can do:
- prefer hardware which also has working Free Software drivers.
- pressure manufacturers to make their own drivers Free.
- support efforts to develop Free drivers.
- ...

A company like Purism does a mix of those.  E.g. it pressured Intel to
release a stripped down boot blob which lets their CPU boot but
neutralizes the ME, it paid developers to added support for some new
CPUs to Coreboot (which might have required getting Intel to provide
information), and it carefully selected some of the hardware components
to avoid proprietary blobs.


        Stefan