SOURCE: https://www.marc.info/?t=142240878300001&r=1&w=2
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> http://phys.org/news/2015-01-high-end-upstream-linux-laptop-ship.html
>
> "the first high-end laptop in the world that ships without mystery software
in the \
> kernel, operating system, or any software applications."
> Can this be? No binary blobs?
It is complete and total BS.
If you dig down deep enough into what they are doing, you will see
this is a major manufacturer sales pitch mixed with a flopped PR
campaign by RMS that is settling for accepting a failure rather than
admitting defeat.
Don't waste your money on a false ideal by someone who misunderstands
modern hardware and the market forces.
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>Can this be? No binary blobs?
The "absolutely no mystery cod" is fake, the same page say:
"which includes a binary from Intel, called FSP."
The FPS is the Firmware Package Support[1]. It have "CPU, memory controller,
and Intel(R) chipset initialization functions as a binary package".
- Run proprietary microcode[2];
- Blobs on Embedded Controller[3];
- Support Intel "features" (Management Engines):
- SMM [4], It have many allegations of backdoor inside;
- SMC [5] . It's a mechanism that have total controll of your
hardware;
- AMT[6] (Active Management Technology); and
- This processor have a cryptoprocessor (or accelerator, I don't know
exactly)
inside [7]. This processor perform the "Intel Indentity Protection
Technology"
(on Public Key Generation step) and AES acceleration (if enabled).
Intel already have accusations about backdoor on this [8].
OpenBSD don't allow this to run.
- Blobs on GPU. It run a Intel Iris Pro 5200, that is VBIOS closed;
- Blobs on USB 3.0; and
- The SSD/HDD have blobs on microcontrollers on drive board.
If you want something more "free", try out some ARM board, like SABRE lite or
something like that.
