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Librem: a Laptop Custom-Made For Free/Libre Software
Bunnie Huang's Novena laptop re-invents the laptop with open source (and Free software) in mind, but the hackability that it's built for requires a fair amount of tolerance on a user's part for funky design and visible guts. New submitter dopeghost writes with word of the nearly-funded (via Crowd Supply) Librem laptop, a different kind of Free-software machine using components "specifically selected so that no binary blobs are needed in the Linux kernel that ships with the laptop." Made from high quality components and featuring a MacBook-like design including a choice of HiDPI screen, the Librem might just be the first laptop to ship with a modern Intel CPU that is not locked down to require proprietary firmware.
Richard M. Stallman, president of the FSF, said, "Getting rid of the signature checking is an important step. While it doesn't give us free code for the firmware, it means that users will really have control of the firmware once we get free code for it." Unlike some crowdfunding projects, this one is far from pie-in-the-sky, relying mostly on off-the-shelf components, with a planned shipping date in Spring of this year: "Purism is manufacturing the motherboard, and screen printing the keyboard. Purism is sourcing the case, daughter cards, memory, drives, battery, camera, and screen."
Richard M. Stallman, president of the FSF, said, "Getting rid of the signature checking is an important step. While it doesn't give us free code for the firmware, it means that users will really have control of the firmware once we get free code for it." Unlike some crowdfunding projects, this one is far from pie-in-the-sky, relying mostly on off-the-shelf components, with a planned shipping date in Spring of this year: "Purism is manufacturing the motherboard, and screen printing the keyboard. Purism is sourcing the case, daughter cards, memory, drives, battery, camera, and screen."
SDXC card slot
How will that work? The SDXC spec requires the use of ExFAT operating system, which is patented software. Or will these laptops not be available in Slashdot's home country?
You have to take steps to make progress. You can take something useful and make it more open (like librem) or you could start from scratch and make something very basic that is completely open.
You can take bigger strides towards openness and get something like Novena, but then you make other sacrifices (size, cost, performance).
I guess if you had infinite money you could make a high spec, completely opensource laptop.
If Snowden's revelations haven't gotten you to care about software freedom, I guess nothing will.
If they were going for free wouldn't DisplyPort have been a better option? I mean HDMI is at its roots video DRM. With DisplyPort you can opt to output to almost every modern video connection available including HDMI.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Some key specs on this thing:
3.4GHz Intel i7-4770HQ
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
375 x 244 x 22mm 2.0Kg
14 x 9.6 x 0.86" 4.4lbs
48 Wh lithium polymer battery
Up to 8 hours usage
That battery life is a pipe dream. The Macbook Pro 15 (which is much better optimized for battery life than Windows) w/o discrete graphics gets 8 hours under light use on the same CPU using a 95 Wh battery. This thing is more likely to get 4 hours best case, probably closer to 2-3 hours since most open source software won't be optimized for power savings on this exact hardware. (Yes I've tested this, when I put together my NAS/VM server. I plugged it into a Kill-a-Watt and measured power draw from a variety of OSes. Windows came in best at 30 Watts idle. The best default install of a Linux distro was 35 Watts idle. The worst 55 Watts idle. All were right around 105 Watts under load.)
Most of the Windows laptops with an quad core i7 (without Iris Pro graphics) managing 4 hours under light use have a 60+ Wh battery. The two with 52/54 Wh batteries (Lenovo Y50, MSI GS60) come in at 3-4 hours battery life in reviews. An 8 hour battery life in this thing is going to be attainable only in the useless "I leave the laptop sitting there powered on, but doing nothing" case (where BTW the MBP 15 hits 14 hours due to its gargantuan battery, and the 60+ Wh Windows laptops manage about 8 hours).
Which brings us to the weight. Given the short battery life, why not increase the weight to put in a bigger battery? Obviously they're trying to match the Macbook Pro 15. But if you can't match it, sacrificing battery size to keep the weight low is probably the worst compromise you can make. As it is, this thing is going to be an super-light (for a 15" notebook) ultra-portable laptop that has to sit on the desk plugged into AC power most of the time. People who buy ultra-portable laptops buy them so they can take it with them and use it away from the desk and power outlet. People who don't mind short battery life don't mind it because their laptop usually sits on a desk plugged into AC power, and thus weight doesn't matter as much. Pick one or the other.
The GPL is the only license practically that lets you dual-license with a proprietary license.
You can give it freely to people who want to spread it freely, and you can charge people who want to close it. That way, you get a return on your investment either way.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Obviously. since the problem is solved, they should be sharing the details with the rest of the poor slobs on Slashdot who are at the mercy of the evil forces of closed proprietary systems.
For a start, none of them are running any Microsoft or Apple product, so no Windows or Mac Os. And they can't be using the latest generation of any CPU, since the NSA has already infiltrated those designs. To be really secure, they must be using something pre-Pentium II, like a 486 generation CPU, or maybe a Motorola 68000. And it can't have USB, since USB sticks are now known to be an attack vector. And they have ATA disks or SCSI and floppies for offline storage and VGA adapters with VGA analog output. Because if they don't go go really old school, how can the be really sure that they aren't under the thumb of The Man?
Yes, all the whiners are running really old gear, because if they weren't they would be horrible hypocrites, and none of them would do that ever, right?
Why is Snark Required?