AFAIK all the OpenPower boxes use the same firmware, so why not buy the cheaper Supermicro ones?
And on a practical level we know that people who bleat about firmware blobs are not going to spend $6,000 to escape from them.
And on a practical level we know that people who bleat about firmware blobs are not going to spend $6,000 to escape from them.
The lesser expensive servers do not use the same firmware as Talos™ or even the more expensive IBM systems. The cheaper machines reduce cost by using proprietary firmware components wherever possible, and by dropping as many features as the market will bear at the lower price point. This is not the market segment that Talos™ is aimed at.
That presentation offers several potential explainations for why that particular market segment is locked to proprietary, non-libre offerings only.