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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has awarded its Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the Taurinus X200 laptop sold by Libiquity.
This is the first product of Libiquity to achieve RYF certification. The Taurinus X200 has the same architecture and certified software as the Libreboot X200, which was certified in January 2015. The Taurinus X200 can be purchased from Libiquity at https://shop.libiquity.com/product/taurinus-x200.
The Taurinus X200 is a refurbished and updated laptop based on the Lenovo ThinkPad X200, with all of the original low-level firmware and operating system software replaced. It runs the FSF-endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system and the free software boot system, Libreboot. Perhaps most importantly, all of Intel's Management Engine (ME) firmware and software has been removed from this laptop.
The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy. The Taurinus X200 comes with the fast and secure Libreboot firmware and the FSF-endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux operating system. Importantly, Intel's Management Engine (ME) firmware with its applications like AMT (remote out-of-band management/backdoor system, part of "vPro") and PAVP (audio/video DRM) have been removed from this laptop.
The laptop ships within the USA and may be purchased from the Libiquity Store.
(Score: 2) by pixeldyne on Wednesday September 30 2015, @10:54PM
Yes but they have additionally replaced the firmware and tested it to make sure everything works, so that's extra labor cost involved.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday September 30 2015, @11:27PM
Is that really needed though? Granted without that it wouldn't be 100% FSF-certified, but the firmware really and truly doesn't need to be FSF-certified as long as it's probably compliant with relevant standards and allows things like secure boot to be turned off.
I get that some folks get a hard on for this sort of thing, but it's too expensive for what they're selling and some of it isn't any more useful than Apple's glowing apple on the back of their laptops.
(Score: 2) by pixeldyne on Wednesday September 30 2015, @11:35PM
Yes, the product here is the firmware not so much the thinkpad laptop. Sales figures will determine actual demand for this sort of configuration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 01 2015, @08:43AM
It's not useful to have a computer that fully respects your freedoms? Speak for yourself; I actually care about my freedoms.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pehjota on Thursday October 01 2015, @02:55AM
Exactly. There's significant labor in testing that everything works, reconditioning/refurbishing and cleaning the laptop, installing (with an external SPI programming setup) the firmware, etc.
With that quality control work put into it, it comes with a warranty much longer than basically any other "used" computer, and in practice it'll most likely last far longer than that warranty period.