[coreboot] Supported laptops (again), treacherous computing

[David Hubbard]

On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 9:42 AM, ron minnich <rminnich at gmail.com> wrote:

> It's kind of useless to point to a bunch of random laptops with a
> compatible chipset. It's never that simple. You don't know what the EC
> is or how to talk to it, and you don't have critical info you need to
> really make this work. So count on about a year of effort,
> potentially. What if there's a magic i2c mux down in there somewhere?
> What if there's some weird flash locking? And on and on, it's a long
> list.
>
> If somebody wants a laptop with coreboot today, that has vendor
> support, get an acer c7 chromebook. If you can stand the keyboard,
> which you really want to test. But it's an incredible deal.
>
> ron
>
>
To echo what Ron said, if you want to devote the time and resources, those
AMD laptops do look tempting.

The linux kernel has spoiled us: at the OS level there are de-facto
standards, largely dictated by Microsoft. Linux developers spend most of
their effort working on 3rd-party add-on hardware support.

I'm as concerned about treacherous computing as anybody. But face the
facts: coreboot's supported hardware list is just not very comprehensive.
And the laptop options right now are Intel-based, all with things like the
EC, IMC, ME ... Intel is hard at work adding hidden treacherous computing.
Catching up to Intel and beating them at their own game is a tall order.

How do you want to help? You can get a Thinkpad right now, with the best
coreboot has to offer, knowing full well it isn't 100% free (yet). You can
start a porting effort for those AMD laptops. Really, it's a green field
and wide open and I think the project is pretty welcoming to new
contributors.

The only thing you should be aware of is that coreboot is _hard_. Like,
harder than Linux, harder than reversing a closed app, harder than
unlocking cell phones and rooting them, but imo worth it.

Cheers,
David
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