[coreboot] BadBIOS Thoughts

[mrnuke]

On 11/18/2013 08:36 AM, Patrick Georgi wrote:
> For someone trying to pull this off, a good first step might be to
> inquire with vendors if they have long term supported AMD models, what
> "long term" means for them, and how to identify these models.
> Then, when the next generation AMD hardware comes out (eg. sometimes
> early 2014), pick one of those, do the port, put up a sales page.
> 
> I'm massively oversimplifying things here, but this seems to be more
> realistic than trying to get ODMs on board (unless you have money to
> burn - enough for a run of devices).
> 
Guys! Stop this nonsense. It didn't work in the past, it doesn't work
now, and it won't work in the future. Once you buy that laptop,
Phoenix/AMI/etc gets their money, Microsoft gets their money, Norton
gets their money... you get the point. Manufacturers are enthralled to
see their sales go up, and they love the fact that they can end their
warranty obligations. What message did we just send?

"Don't worry 'bout what I care, just put the dang system on the market."
All that is besides the fact that whoever buys such a system will pay
almost twice what the system is worth, since the software fees are still
included. The method you guys are discussing is not only plain stupid,
it's also dangerous. It's dangerous for coreboot in that it undermines
the power of voting with the wallet, and most definitely eliminates any
incentive to consider coreboot as a factory default.

The next best thing, crowdfunding is also out of the picture as long as
a coreboot non-profit does not exist.

The best we have, short of convincing a manufacturer to start
corebootizing, is to petition Google to spit out a midrange chromebook
with AMD undergarments. It's a long shot. Otherwise, I'm certain many of
you will find existing chromebooks to outperform the ancient T60.

Alex

-- Sent from my Pavilion Chromebook running linux