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A Site that Lists Systems w/o DRM?
timdaly asks: "I'm about to purchase new hardware. I understand that DRM has been added to the BIOS of some systems. Is anyone aware of a site that lists which systems are DRM-disabled? I don't want to purchase hardware that has any DRM. Like unique keys on CPUs the DRM technology seems to be more of a threat than a useful tool."
I'd also like to know if we can keep track of the DRM "infection". I don't see DRM as being good at all for the consumer. Perhaps in some very small ways, like having control over a hateful email sent to someone else, but no one should be doing such things anyway.
If there are any non-DRM BIOSes out there it's just because they haven't been updated yet. Don't buy them now, or you'll have no choice but to buy them for your next computer. AMI is gone, Phoenix is gone and Award no longer exists except as a sub-brand of Phoenix. Yes, this is a scary phenomenon. Vote with dollars. Apple's OpenFirmware doesn't contain any DRM (who knows for how long), Sun also uses OpenFirmware I believe?
If you absolutely insist on sticking to PC/Windows, consider supporting the OpenBIOS project, but it's not available as a hardware BIOS, nor in any motherboards that I know of, it's an after-the-purchase flash update (plus god only knows if it works properly). And since you're trying to flash away the DRM in the BIOS, you never know, it may not be allowed in the future. After all, we have to keep "viruses" from flashing our BIOSes now don't we? So lets make sure those flashes are cryptographically signed by Award/Phoenix/AMI...
Random and weird software I've written.
- nondrm.slashdot.org
hey, I don't recall another site that dislikes DRM as much as the slashdot crowd... so why don't we make an effort and do a 'nondrm' zone, a zone that is stuffed with 'how to circumvent' DRM'd-anythingI don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
As an owner of a Dual AthlonMP 2800+ rig, I can tell you that the extra $1000 for the SMP would be worth it...once you go SMP you can never go back. And SMP should be an extra $1000 (unless you can only get SMP on the highest end G5 and compare that price against a slightly lower end model). All in all it only cost me about $300 more for the SMP system ($70 more for the board + $100 for the extra proc + $30 for the extra HSF + $100 more for the RAM since the board only takes Registered ECC).
Having two oggencs running at once both chugging along at 14x realtime while the system remains responsive (because, at that speed, it is the speed of my hard disk that is limiting things...14x = ~14 MB/s being processed, * 2 = ~28M per second being pulled from the hard drive after being pulled off of a CD) so I still have enough CPU time left for everything else.
Being able to rip a DVD to XViD + Vorbis and watching that rip while it is being encoded is also really nice. Or playing Quake 2 while running a three pass encode. Ardour and The GIMP love me more too. SMP is just plain cool. I need more RAM though...GCC 3.x eats RAM while compiling C++ so having two copies of GCC both using 700M stresses my system a bit (since I only have 1G of RAM). Otherwise everything is really responsive.
Dear Moderators: Please don't moderate this comment. I turned off the karma bonus because I know it is off topic and wish for it to be ignored by most people.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
If there are any non-DRM BIOSes out there it's just because they haven't been updated yet.
Oh, for *Christ's sake*. Look, you silly ninny. Part of the TCPA spec is that it be *user-disablable*. A user *must* be able to flip off TCPA on a system that uses it.
Now, to this I've heard two counterarguments:
a) Compatibility. "Yes, but the vendors will just make their software not *run* without TCPA because they insist on having TCPA-based protection for their product." Fine. Buying a PPC or a SPARC or some oddball x86 box isn't going to do a damned thing to help you here. If a vendor isn't willing to make a product that works without TCPA, they aren't going to make that product that works without TCPA. It means people that have x86 boxes with TCPA off *and* Mac/Solaris/etc users are simply excluded from using that product. You gain nothing by switching platforms.
b) Slippery Slope. "Oh, but they don't have it on *today*, but I've seen someone speculate that the TCPA spec will be changed someday to *prevent* people from disabling TCPA!" Okay. For starters, this is astoundingly unlikely. There is *zero* reason for any BIOS vendor, OEM, or software publisher to want to prevent you from disabling TCPA. They simply have no incentive. It doesn't help them an iota. If they want their software not to run on a TCPA-less system, they won't let it run on a TCPA-less system. It doesn't help prevent piracy or let anyone charge higher prices, or do a single thing for anyone, and a few people will complain bitterly about it. Why bother? In the second place, no barriers are being erected that will make it harder to switch if such an unlikely event did take place. If the whole world suddenly says "no TCPA disabling for you!"...fine. You can switch.
The main group of people that I've seen ranting about TCPA have been overzealous Apple fans, who are apparently trying to confuse and worry people into switching to the Mac.
Oh, yes. This doesn't affect Linux users in the least, either. The only possible people who would be affected would be Windows users.
Finally, I just don't see the fuss over TCPA. It's useless for securing media (far too many ways to break it in any kind of a real-world implementation, it only takes one break to let media be spread across the Internet, etc). It may have minimal use (extremely minimal, since it is interfaced with in a standard manner) in securing software, but people already happily crack things using SafeCD and similar pieces of software -- players pirating software already frequently use cracked or modified copies. All they need to do is crack and distribute a copy that doesn't require TCPA (just like copies of software that check validity over the network or copies of software that use CD protection or whatnot.
TCPA is the most overblown fear that people here have had for *ages*. It's really amazing. If you want to get LinuxBIOS or something, great -- but be realistic, and do it for the fast-boot benefits and other nice things in LinuxBIOS, not because of some phantom fears that people have managed to raise about an Orwellian computing environment. It's just not going to happen.
May we never see th