MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-01-22 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Linux Laptop from scratch Hardware Open Standards
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http://www.zdnet.com/article/librem-15-free-software-gnulinux-laptop-makes-funding-goal/
Librem 15, the first free software GNU/Linux laptop, makes funding goal
Summary:The Librem 15 Linux laptop has surpassed the $250-thousand goal
it needed to launch.
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
for
Linux and Open Source | January
22, 2015 -- 18:47 GMT (10:47 PST)
If you want a Linux on a laptop, it's easy to install it yourself. You
can also always buy one from a specialized Linux vendor such as System76
and ZaReason
or even get a mainstream laptop, like the new Dell XPS 13 and 15 with
Ubuntu installed.
What you /can't/ do is get one with a minimum of proprietary firmware,
until now.
librem-laptop.jpgThe free-software Linux Librem laptop has made its
funding goal and should ship in April 2015.
Crowd Supply , a curated crowd-funding and
e-commerce company has been working on funding the first pure
free-software laptop, the Purism Librem 15
. The Kickstarter-like
project had been seeking $250,000 to create the "first high-end laptop
in the world that ships without mystery software in the kernel,
operating system, or any software applications." On January 21st, the
company achieved its goal. As of January 22nd, the project has raised
just over $260,000.
Purism , the company behind the Librem 15, promises
that it will ship an Intel CPU fused to run unsigned BIOS code. The hope
is that this will allow a future where free software can replace the
proprietary, digitally signed, BIOS binaries.
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The company claims that Librem will be better than its competitors
because the "the hardware used in the Librem 15 laptop was specifically
selected so that no binary blobs are needed in the Linux kernel that
ships with the laptop. All other Linux pre-installed devices include
binary blobs in the Linux kernel."
In addition, "the Librem 15 is the first concrete step toward changing
computer manufacturing in a fundamental way. We believe in users'
rights, and will continue to push upstream to free the BIOS and
component firmware."
That all sounds great, but there's one fly in the soup. While Purism has
been trying to get Intel to open-source the Intel Firmware Support
Package (FSP) and Management Engine (ME) blobs
, which are essential for
Linux to work with Intel chip-sets, they still haven't gotten access to
this code.
This laptop will have a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 display, a 3.4 GHz 4-core
Intel i7 CPU, Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200, 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB
hard-drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 720p Webcam and... proprietary firmware.
For its operating system, it will use Purism 64-bit GNU/Linux. This is a
Trisquel -based operating system, which is built
off Ubuntu Linux.
So, while its heart may in the right free-software place, this laptop
will still ship with some proprietary code. Still, the first run of the
Librem 15 is scheduled to ship in April 2015. When available, these
laptops will sell for $1,495.
It may not be perfect from a free-software viewpoint, but even the grand
guru of free software, Richard M. Stallman, has said about it that,
"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." It's
a start.
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