On Monday, November 14, 2016 at 11:58:32 AM UTC-8, entr0py wrote: > Eric: > > On Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 10:44:33 PM UTC-8, tai...@gmx.com > > wrote: > >> Forgot to say: Purism is just an overpriced quanta/oem whitebox > >> laptop, it takes 5mil+ of startup funds to do a small run of *just > >> a motherboard* let alone an entire laptop computer including the > >> fab for a fancy aluminum case - it is quite obvious that their > >> components are not "hand selected" and that they just called up > >> some chinese OEM and asked them what they had kicking around. > >> > >> I can't understand if they are scammers or just really naive, > >> Instead of making an OpenPower or ARM laptop and having it be 100% > >> libre from the start they instead do the dishonest "you'll go to > >> disneyworld one day poor johnny" - If google can't convince intel > >> to open up FSP/ME then nobody can - coreboot with FSP is just > >> shimboot (black box FSP - 95% of the bios work) > >> > >> It bothers me quite a lot that they are on the list of approved > >> vendors when they are a dishonest company. > > > > Whoa. Ok, hold on a sec. I did not buy a Purism computer, though not > > for those reasons - putting a 28W TDP proc in a 15inch "workstation" > > is absurd to me. as is their lack of a screen configuration. I hear > > your anger at the gap between what they promise and what they > > deliver; I'm more displeased on the hardware side of things (though I > > do like HW kill switches. I've looked into what they promise and > > understand very well that they don't actually have a very free > > computer at all, especially on the bios/firmware side. > > > > What I actually ordered (and have now cancelled), was a Dell XPS 15". > > There is no vPro option in the configure menu, though it does support > > VT-d and SLAT. I've read all of Joanna's papers, and understand the > > concerns about Intel ME very well. However, on the Dell order, it > > claimed "ME Disabled." Perhaps they simply meant that vPro/AMT/TXT > > was disabled, and that was mine and Dell's fault for wishful thinking > > and false naming, respectively. Please see linked photo: > > https://d.pr/Q0YZ > > > > Moral considerations aside, why not buy that Dell and pair it with a portable > router/firewall like this > (https://www.compulab.co.il/utilite-computer/web/products)? Shouldn't that > effectively block out any ME-related mischief or do I have a fundamental > misunderstanding? It doesn't seem possible otherwise to get the type of > processing power you're looking for in a laptop form-factor.
Well, the Dell XPS was enough processing power for me. The Business version, the Precision 5510, not only has vPro and TXT, but also supports ECC memory (Xeon E5). Adds another layer of protection (against Rowhammer attacks that can compromise even Qubes), but a) nobody actually makes DDR4-ECC-SODIMM memory that I can find, and b) it's basically another thousand bucks. I also happen to hate 16:9 displays, but I would compromise on that for Qubes' sake. As far as blob-free hardware goes, I unfortunately have to live and work in the world, and therefore need 1) performance and x86-64 architecture, and 2) to not have my computer be a part time job. Guess I'll keep looking. And saving. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to qubes-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to qubes-users@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/0c8be8fb-0982-48f7-8af5-6a44eb52711d%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
