[IAEP] Which cheap 2016 Laptop should be our reference?

[Samuel Greenfeld]

I am going to take the unpopular stance here and say if all you are willing
to support is a computer which requires no binary blobs, you are going to
support no computer at all.

It's just a question of who loads what binary blobs.  Even x86 CPUs have
their microcode loaders and digitally signed firmware nowadays.

Starting this month, the Federal Communication Commission required all
devices manufactured with 5 GHz wireless firmware sold in the  United
States prove that alternative firmware cannot be installed that will alter
the wireless output from the manufacturer's/FCC's original intent.  Most
manufacturers have taken the easy route and blocked all
non-binary/alternative firmware support - it's the easiest route to meet
that goal.


On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 6:51 PM, Jonas Smedegaard <dr at jones.dk> wrote:

> Quoting Sam Parkinson (2016-06-23 00:07:34)
> > I think that the issue was mainly it was hard to install Sugar on the
> > 1st generation rpis.  The 1st gen was a special snowflake and it
> > didn't run normal distros that could normally intall sugar.
>
> RPi1 _also_ was slow, like most devices of that era, but...
>
>
> > I think the situation has changed?  Can't the rpi3 run mainline
> > kernel?
>
> No, it cannot *boot* without non-free blobs!
>
> No ARM devices can do 3D graphics without non-free blobs, but the RPi
> boards are particularly bad in that the 3D graphics is hardwired to the
> bootup process.
>
> If you want the RPi, then admit that you compromise on freedoms, don't
> try fool yourself and your surroundoungs by claiming differently.
>
>
> > There are actually a few funny tablets that run mainline kernel, like
> > the 2013 nexus 7.  (not the 2012 nexus7, that's a tegra chip) Maybe
> > those are of interest to us.
>
> No, I am pretty sure Nexus 7 is the one I checked a bit closer recently
> and found to only be limping when using mainline kernel - mostly
> relevant for Canonical to stuff their non-free blobs on top, and for PR
> folks to fool wanna-be purists who don't read the fine print to tag
> along).
>
> If you want a free(ish) phone, buy a GTA04 (but it isn't cheap).
>
> If you want a free(ish) tablet, buy an Allwinner-based one that you have
> double-checked is working with Debian.  Not some vendor-shipped "Debian"
> but what _Debian_ calls Debian - with kernel distributed from Debian!
>
>
> ...or don't - but then call it something else than "free", please:
> Consumers watering down the terms is far more confusing than Microsoft
> inventing "shared source".
>
>
>  - Jonas
>
> --
>  * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
>  * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
>
>  [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
>
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/attachments/20160622/2ea219e6/attachment-0001.html>