On Wednesday, 6 January 2021 at 00:04:44 UTC anonymou...@danwin1210.me wrote:
> I'm looking for a laptop that can run Qubes without stress. I want the > cheapest one possible. > Please let me know which one I should get. > It just so happens that I've been researching what are the cheapest computers to do fairly standard computer things... I would advise against using a used computer, unless you have strong reasons to believe it hasn't been compromised. A used computer can go through various owners, and any one of those owners could have been targeted to the extent that the computer was hacked, perhaps even to the point of hardware tampering. Additionally, the person selling or passing the computer on to you, may be involved in a racket where they are deliberately passing on hacked computers for bad purposes. Since you want to run Qubes, I'm guessing security is important to you, which is why I'm generally advising against using a used computer. If you want to go down the route of a used computer in spite of the above, you ought to think about faithfully reinstalling all of the firmware chips. You can't necessarily rely on firmware-updating mechanisms provided by the existing firmware, as such mechanisms may themselves be compromised. I'm going through the same process for my old Chromebook C720 laptop-like computer. I've settled on de-soldering the main system firmware chip <https://doc.coreboot.org/flash_tutorial/ext_standalone.html> to replace it with one securely obtained in anonymous ways (to overcome targeted attacks) <https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Talk:End-user_Computer_Security/Main_content/Broad_security_principles#Concerning_§⟪User_randomly_selecting_unit_from_off_physical_shelves⟫,_and_add_§⟪Anonymity_based⟫?> that I'll be reprogramming using a brand new, securely obtained, Raspberry Pi computer <https://github.com/bibanon/Coreboot-ThinkPads/wiki/Hardware-Flashing-with-Raspberry-Pi>, in addition to completely replacing components that have potentially-compromised firmware chips <https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Talk:End-user_Computer_Security/Main_content/Software_based#There_are_other_kinds_of_bootloaders_other_than_BIOSes_and_UEFIs,_as_well_as_similar_security_threats_based_in_other_kinds_of_firmware_(such_as_in_the_firmware_chips_of_graphics_cards)_so_perhaps_material_should_be_extended_and_generalised_to_cover....?> (such as the system disk). After taking such firmware-based security measures, you probably will mostly have to keep your 'fingers crossed', that the hardware hasn't been altered in other ways—such other kinds of alteration are probably unlikely though. On the other hand, if you are looking at a brand new computer, Raspberry Pi computers <https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-400/>, smartphones, and tablets are just about the cheapest brand new computers you can get where you are able to do general computing things. As for the laptop requirement, you could perhaps think about setting-up a "pseudo laptop experience" using such computing devices. Hope this helps, Kind regards, Mark Fernandes -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/9274363b-c168-4407-b935-af11e998749dn%40googlegroups.com.
