Comment by 🐐 drh3xx
Re: "I feel myself becoming more and more of a tech separatist…"
I've been thinking recently how I want some fully open hardware (even at expense of performance) with a GNU licensed OpenBSD derivative (immutable and offline first?) that takes a generally suckless approach. Anyone got some relevant skills to give it a crack together? The only way I see anything like a fully Libre GNU/Linux succeed is if they produce some relatively modern hardware platform themselves.
Feb 21 · 2 months ago
8 Later Comments ↓
👻 darkghost · Feb 21 at 12:03:
@drh3xx Fully open hardware exists but it runs Linux. I want you to sit down before you check pricing on it.
Ready?
It's made by MNT they have two laptops called the Reform and the Pocket. I've considered it but failed to act before tariffs made it much worse for me to buy.
🚀 lars_the_bear · Feb 21 at 13:18:
@darkghost : Thanks for the warning. I wonder if they sell many at that price?
Well, the tariffs had been struck down by the Supreme Court. We'll see what happens with prices.
@darkghost They look to be fairly well built and maintainable (beyond the main board/SoC dying many years down the line). Price is quite high for less than Intel N100 performance but if it's fully open with many years of support (even 3rd party) I'd be open it. The OS I mentioned would likely remain pretty niche anyway. Could start with a gutted (Libre?)Linux kernel to OBSDify it, add in some nice OBSD features like pledge, select base packages and from then on develop the OS as a complete OS, BSD style. Would probably have to go that kind of route anyway as not sure the BSD license could just be ripped out and replaced with one of the GNU compatible licenses without getting in any bother.
👻 darkghost · Feb 21 at 16:52:
Yeah it is hard to justify on the price to performance. If you want it and have the means, you'll get it. As one of the reviews said "it's the device for after the astroid hits" though making up a quick C app will be low on my list if I survive the asteroid.
I think there will be plenty of top of the line I9 PCs and licensing will not be an issue.
I'm fairly torn honestly. I'm very much against gatekeeping, & making newcomers feel unwelcome, but on the flipside it's saddening seeing niche communities experiencing influx of low effort memeish content, & can sense the eye rolling & general wincing from core contributors.
As with most things, there's likely a middle ground. I 100% agree with the notion that a critical mass rarely needs to be reached, or that an appeal to the popular needs to ever be made. Though I believe that ethos shouldn't overshadow being somewhat welcoming to newbs.
— https://reform.debian.net/d-i/
U-Boot for all platforms shipped by MNT require non-free material in the form of DDR training blobs, ARM trusted firmware blobs, WiFi/BT firmware and/or HDMI/eDP firmware.
not free enough, not expensive enough
— https://secure.raptorcs.com/content/TL2WK2/purchase.html
Original Post
I feel myself becoming more and more of a tech separatist as time goes on. Not only do I like alternative tech-related things like Gemini or OpenBSD for example, but I would also prefer that these types of things never become mainstream, because it seems as though that once you cross that line, it's only a matter of time before it gets ruined for being too crowded. At least OpenBSD refuses to appease anyone outside the project and I don't really foresee Gemini appealing to the masses either. I...