Howdy all, I want to get some machines for the home network, and I want them to be fully supported by only-free software.
I would be happy to pay some business in Melbourne to build it from parts and test it, and ideally be available for warranty support. The big trouble is finding people who can meet the free-software requirements. Saying “free software only” doesn't ring any bells with vendors, for the familiar reasons that nobody thinks about software freedom. Saying “only hardware supported by Linux without binary blobs” just gets boiled down in their head to “Linux”, and reliably leads to disappointment when they recommend hardware that doesn't meet what I described. There are some resources to help with this. But pointing a vendor at <URL:http://www.h-node.com/> and asking them to choose only hardware that gets an okay in that database is not much of an option; my money is likely not worth it to the shop to spend their time on that site. There are also efforts to put together computers and sell them <URL:http://open-pc.com/>; but they're patchy and poorly-available and the store interfaces are average-to-terrible. Needless to say none of them are in Melbourne, so delivery costs are a huge factor. Worst of all, those well-researched complete machines are almost never specified in detail, so I can't just say to a Melbourne shop “build me one of these, test it with this USB stick, sell it to me, and give me warranty support”. The information just isn't there for me to take to the shop. Where can I get satisfaction here? I need some or all of these functions: * a machine to act as ADSL + wireless router and DNS + DHCP + HTTP proxy * a machine to act as grunty software development workstation * a machine to act as thin desktop client * a machine to act as home theatre for video & audio It's not 2000 any more; even Debian now has an entirely free-software kernel. Now all I need is to know exactly what good-quality parts to buy to have the above functions. Surely I don't have to individually compile all these specifications myself? -- \ “Human reason is snatching everything to itself, leaving | `\ nothing for faith.” —Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090–1153 CE | _o__) | Ben Finney _______________________________________________ Free-software-melb mailing list Free-software-melb@lists.softwarefreedom.com.au http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb
