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Comment by marcodiego | Hacker News Reader

You can have computers that you own today. There is a list here: https://ryf.fsf.org/categories/laptops .

If you want something more powerful, there're these:

  - https://ryf.fsf.org/categories/workstations-and-servers

  - https://ryf.fsf.org/categories/mainboards

Also, Andrius Stikonas achieved a blob-free fully functioning (AFAIK) RockPro64 more than a year ago: https://stikonas.eu/wordpress/2019/09/15/blobless-boot-with-...

People have to vote with their wallets and pressure vendors.

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If only it were "voting with your wallet". It's more like voting with your time. And running browsers and other rando software in VMs to not compromise your nice secure system. And doing the work of being different when friends send you an invitation to some proprietary crap and you have to talk them into something Free. And explaining how you're not excited for "features" like WebGL and Faceboot APIs.

It does exist, it's all eminently doable, and I encourage people to explore this road. But it does cost more than mere money. Going against the grain always does.

Thanks for the ryf links, I didn't know about that. Something to keep in mind the next time I'm looking for hardware.

If you’re looking for RYF-certified hardware, I suggest looking here: https://h-node.org/hardware/catalogue/en

Sure, you can own that computer, but then you have to get online which requires another pile of knowledge to even hope at reducing now much you're tracked. This is not a reasonable solution.

> People have to vote with their wallets and pressure vendors.

I disagree. Expected someone with very little knowledge of the topic to make an informed choice here is highly unlikely to work. You could say the same about clothing created by child labour, but most people aren't going to spend a couple hours researching if the shirt they like is okay to buy, nor should they be expected to.

I believe the solution to this problem has to ultimately come from regulation.

Why on earth would they use re-imaged Lenovo laptops when that company has a history of hiding malware in firmware so that even a reinstall can't remove it? Why should anyone trust they haven't shoved something nefarious in a chip somewhere. If you want a trusted system you have to start from trustworthy hardware or at the very least avoid manufacturers that are already known to be both untrustworthy and unethical

Those machines are wiped and the low level firmware and boot loader is replaced. The specific models available are chosen because newer machines prevent you from doing this. You can’t easily get a computer more fully free than these. They link to some new processors and motherboards for desktop builds too, good companies making those who deserve some support

And what is "trustworthy hardware"? Intel Me is more untrustworthy and unethical since you can't avoid those.

Thank you for this list from the fsf, I didn't know it existed. Usefull for selecting products like which bluetooth dongle to buy.

“CPU Intel Core 2 Duo SP9400 2.40GHz. Upgradable to SP9600 2.53GHz.”

Looks like more of the same.

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