You can run a free OS pretty effortless, but when wanting 100% free software, you have to dig deeper and replace the proprietary BIOS firmware.
Besides the already mentioned Star Labs and System76, there’s also Insurgo, Nitropad and NovaCustom.
As for an exhaustive list on the matter, unfortunately, I don’t think something like that is out there. Though both Canoeboot (formerly known as Libreboot) and Dasharo do have their own respective lists.
Canoeboot is more of a sister to libreboot than a replacement
Canoeboot is engineered to a high standard, basing off of each Libreboot release, but you should still use Libreboot. Canoeboot is only a proof of concept.
I just got myself a Clevo NV41MZ, supported by Dasharo! Lets see if this machine would like to boot my damn usb sticks XD
Hehe :P , consider to keep us updated on how it goes ;) !
Clevo MZ41
Would that be the Clevo model that NovaCustom’s NV41 Series is ‘based’ on?
Yes, model names, its a NV41MZ. Very rare to find actually and an older model than novacustoms.
So far, the build quality… they saved on material. Keyboard and chassis are very cheap. I wish I could swap in my Thinkpad keyboard, would probably be possible.
Just get a 20 or 30 series Thinkpad that has no nvidia GPU, and flash coreboot on it.
No, you cannot get 100% free firmware these days, but you can get something close this way.
I mean… Depends what you mean by 100% free firmware… If you mean only the boot firmware, that’s the case for PCs like the ThinkPads T400, T500, R500, W500, X200, as well as the Dell Latitude E6400. Note Libreboot even recommends the latter for new full libre buys, as it can be software-flashed without disassembly.
But if you mean 100% free including EC firmware, wireless firmware, and disk firmware, then this will probably never happen, or at least not until a very very long time.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s an uphill battle, arguably pointless too.
Before going with the current 30 series, I was using X200 and X60. They’re both good machines, don’t get me wrong. However, their age shows when trying to do modern tasks, even something as simple as web browsing.
The X60 doesn’t even have the hardware acceleration capability for my usual KDE setup. By the way, you’d be stuck with DDR2.
The X200 is much more capable than X60, but try to browse most modern sites and you’ll feel the machine getting hot. You could turn off javascript, but then you’ll be missing quite a bit of functionalities. I definitely wouldn’t run VSCodium on it for work. I’m currently using this one as a testbed for distrohopping.
To me, the 30 series is a sweet spot. The Ivy bridge is not too old for demanding computations of modern days. If you opt for the highest tier i7, you could beat a lot of the average ones from the following generations. If you don’t get the processor you want, you can always replace it since it’s socketed, at least for my W530, which should apply for T430 &T530 (not X230).
You might want to ask yourself: what are you trying to achieve, and more importantly, how can you measure what you’ve actually achieved? No, blindly following online articles is not a good measurement.
I found out later on that I had no way of actually verifying anything with libreboot. The build system is a pain in the neck to follow thru. I then tried doing it with coreboot upstream, and my experience building with it was much better. Even with it, I wouldn’t have the chance to look thru every line of code, I still need to just “trust” somebody.
You can definitely play around, but if that’s all you do, you’d be asking yourself why you did all that when you get bored.
The disks still have proprietary firmware, as do several other components though.
But it’s a closed device with the firmware not being for user to replace.
While BIOS can be updated without opening the computer. Or many WiFi cards require you to load a firmware on them upon boot.
So firmware in the disk is more of a right-to-repair problem rather than free/nonfree software
https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/
also iirc starbook/system76 also does coreboot support
ThinkPads have some sort of an open source replacement I think…
