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As of this writing the librem 5 by Purism is $75,000 from being fully funded. It will complete funding later today/early tomorrow and then there will be a fully open source debian based phone. https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

Hopefully Purism, with their Librem phone and PureOS, will survive, if only as a niche product. Designed to be a super secure phone based on Debian.

https://puri.sm/

How is this Euro only?

The hardware will run almost any GNU+Linux based distribution, it will also work with 2G/3G/4G, GSM, UMTS, and LTE networks.

https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

You don't need a facebook blocker...that only solved part of the facebook issue. You need Privacy Badger (blocks facebook, twitter and the rest of them) + uBlock Origin.

It does not hurt to always brows in private mode in Firefox. Sure Chrome might be a better browser but it also tells google everything you go and that displays custom ads and shopping results tailored to you...

If you value your privacy do not stop just at the application level. Get to the OS AND hardware level if possible. An OS that respects your privacy; may I recommend a non proprietary hardware platform as well? -> Librem laptops from https://puri.sm/

I'm not sold on the PureOS itself although I like the concept (you can install Qubes, better I think) but the hardware bit is as "transparent" as you can get.

Note: yes I am aware this is using CoreBoot that can work on many other platforms but unlike many other platforms

CoreBoot opensource bios would very much like to steer clear of this particular bit of Intel technology - https://puri.sm/posts/how-puri... How Purism Avoids Critical Intel Security Exploit

There's a company that says they have found a way to neutralize the ME, overwriting all of its main modules (i.e. the ones that allow DMA and network access like this exploit uses): https://puri.sm/learn/avoiding...

Purism is a relatively new company that builds Linux-centric hardware with an emphasis on open hardware. They have a small but nice lineup.

As far as modern Linux laptops go, I'd suspect you can't do any better.

All of the systems listed in the post are good choices. To those, I would add only the Librem laptops, which are designed specifically for Free Software:

https://puri.sm/products/

Purism - laptops look pretty sleek.

There are some companies who provide a hardware kill switch to the microphone (grep for "HKS"), but this exploit means that the speakers are also vulnerable.

They don't know any better. Pesky kids.

If you want a Free Software compatible laptop and you're willing to pay, it's hard to do better than Purism.

https://puri.sm/

If that's too rich - and they are expensive - then get the best ThinkPad you can afford.

It depends on the laptops and how well the manufacturer supports Linux....

I second this so much.

Nobody would buy a Lenovo PC and then complain that OSX doesn't work on it. If you know that Lenovo doesn't give full Linux support why would you buy one of their laptops in the first place? Even if you are forced to use Windows today, eventually you know that either increasing system requirements will make the machine obsolete or the next Microsoft spyware add on will be one step too far.

There are plenty of manufacturers doing decent hardware guarantees, ranging from Purism who will ensure all drivers are free through System76 a wide range of solid, reasonably cheap laptops and a good hardware support reputation through to Dell who will do modern hardware with full onsite corporate support (I've had pretty good experiences here, as long as you make that the local technician uses the Linux certified firmware/hardware combinations) and supply from other countries than the USA.

A few years ago it might have been reasonable to complain that your hardware didn't support Linux properly. Not now.

Purism
System76
Tuxedo Computers

Luckyly we have those now.

They claim the specific Intel CPUs they picked do not support AMT: https://puri.sm/forums/users/t...

They have also been very up-front about the ME binary blob used with Intel CPUs. The hope was to eventually get Intel to open their code.

Physical switch on the mic you can turn off or on. Perhaps with a nice indicator light.

These are showing up on at least one laptop brand: https://puri.sm/librem-15/

Would be interesting to see if any old laptops from 15-20 years ago had such switches.

As for 'airplane mode' radio cutoff switches, those are going away in favor of purely software controlled transceivers. On Thinkpads, I think the 2012 models were the last to have the switches.

I have the Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Mine was the first-gen model, and I still use it. I can't speak to following generations. Works great with Fedora Linux (GNOME desktop).

And before anyone asks: Yes, I completely wiped the hard drive and re-installed with Linux. It's a total "start from scratch" so I didn't inherit any spyware (that I know of).

That said, I'm thinking that my next Linux laptop will be a Purism Librem. I've read very good reviews, and I kind of want to support someone who built a Linux-only laptop.

We are working hard to free the lower level, here is our roadmap: https://puri.sm/road-to-fsf-ry... Thanks for all the support so far! You can email me, and I will respond: todd@puri.sm Thanks!

I dont care all that much about the claims of the laptop being fully "libre" and I understand that a compromised microcode or FSP can compromise the entire PC, I do believe though that the less binary and closed components their are, the less attack vectors are available.
It may not be perfect but its better than every thing else which is available and it is a step in the right direction. Showing that some buyers DO care about such things demonstrates that a market exists for such machines even at a higher price.
If this can bring us good laptops which are not riddled by malware from day1 as most windows laptop are today, I say go for it.

Yes compromised microcode is still bad, puri.sm is supposedly working on a coreboot base for rev2 (they do acknowledge that rev1 shipped with an AMD Bios here : https://puri.sm/posts/librem-1...)
And yes they are still talking about coreboot instead of libreboot and I haven't had time to read up on what they are and why I should care. They also say that they are working with Intel to free the remaining bits which is laudable at least.

Regarding the memory, they have provided explanations regarding this exact point in their blog
"We heard from a backer that Intelligent Memory can run 32GB even though the specification states 16GB! This was corroborated by both PCWorld and our direct contact at Intelligent Memory this morning. We are back to offering 32GB, and will not change the existing orders down to 16GB."
See https://puri.sm/posts/32gb-is-... for a link to the pcworld bit

I am monitoring the librem 15 news very closely because on paper this is the laptop I want to buy except I haven't :)
All the reviews I have been able to find were done using prototypes, I have been unable to find any article on the production hardware for rev1, I have not seen anyone bragging that they had actually recieved their rev1 either. no pictures, no hands-on impressions etc no actual feedback on the build quality from non marketing sources.

While I don't mind the price for a really good quality laptop, I am unwilling to put it for a machine from a vendor with 0 track record on build quality, delivery, support, etc with no obvious return policy if the laptop doens't meet my standards
(a situation which is made even worse by my being european and puri.sm being an SF based startup which makes the chances of proper support / return pretty slim.)

I dont care all that much about the claims of the laptop being fully "libre" and I understand that a compromised microcode or FSP can compromise the entire PC, I do believe though that the less binary and closed components their are, the less attack vectors are available.
It may not be perfect but its better than every thing else which is available and it is a step in the right direction. Showing that some buyers DO care about such things demonstrates that a market exists for such machines even at a higher price.
If this can bring us good laptops which are not riddled by malware from day1 as most windows laptop are today, I say go for it.

Yes compromised microcode is still bad, puri.sm is supposedly working on a coreboot base for rev2 (they do acknowledge that rev1 shipped with an AMD Bios here : https://puri.sm/posts/librem-1...)
And yes they are still talking about coreboot instead of libreboot and I haven't had time to read up on what they are and why I should care. They also say that they are working with Intel to free the remaining bits which is laudable at least.

Regarding the memory, they have provided explanations regarding this exact point in their blog
"We heard from a backer that Intelligent Memory can run 32GB even though the specification states 16GB! This was corroborated by both PCWorld and our direct contact at Intelligent Memory this morning. We are back to offering 32GB, and will not change the existing orders down to 16GB."
See https://puri.sm/posts/32gb-is-... for a link to the pcworld bit

I am monitoring the librem 15 news very closely because on paper this is the laptop I want to buy except I haven't :)
All the reviews I have been able to find were done using prototypes, I have been unable to find any article on the production hardware for rev1, I have not seen anyone bragging that they had actually recieved their rev1 either. no pictures, no hands-on impressions etc no actual feedback on the build quality from non marketing sources.

While I don't mind the price for a really good quality laptop, I am unwilling to put it for a machine from a vendor with 0 track record on build quality, delivery, support, etc with no obvious return policy if the laptop doens't meet my standards
(a situation which is made even worse by my being european and puri.sm being an SF based startup which makes the chances of proper support / return pretty slim.)

https://puri.sm/pureos/

Though actually not a lot there.

So besides the mild irony of a Flash Video (and I'm sure Flash is not allowed on PureOS) the URL for the OS has both a typo AND a missing period. It's https://puri.sm/pureos/

And people have shown over and over that Free as in Speech takes a back seat to actually getting things done. I'm glad for the people releasing this, I hope they have fun, but it will be a small circle of people patting each other on the back as everyone else goes to mobile.

Congratulations on your daughter's exceptional academic trajectory. This laptop may be worth considering. https://puri.sm/ https://www.crowdsupply.com/pu... This linux distro may be worth her consideration, as well. https://www.scientificlinux.or... cheers, frequency.dynamics

It's already implemented.
The powers that be have chosen "No one is cyber-secure" for you.

Granted, nothing is perfect. But I'd like to see any demonstration of hacking a system like this.

Or, rather, I'd like to see them try.

Real network security is defined by the quality of its endpoints. And to have secure endpoints we need a personal computing culture that values openness as the first step to better security.

Besides, I'd pick up this device these days.

From that website:

There is absolutely no mystery cod...

I'm switching right now. If there's one thing I don't want in a laptop, it's mystery cod.

Apple still has one thing going for it: Predictable hardware. Even after 15 years or so of OS X, the range of devces is fairly overseeable. If a crew gets Linux to run on a mac, they've like also gotten the drivers and all the extras to run halfway properly.

But that's about the only reason to get a mac to run linux. Besides, I'd pick up this device these days. Awesome project - deserves every support they can get.

Bottom line:
You buy a mac for the awesome hard- and software integration and their sleek product design. Using a mac without its OS isn't that smart, IMHO.