From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 References: In-Reply-To: From: "James A. Robinson" Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2016 21:28:06 +0000 Message-ID: To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001a114d8b22f0576d054121485d Subject: Re: [9fans] Purism laptops Topicbox-Message-UUID: aaa2e1e4-ead9-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 --001a114d8b22f0576d054121485d Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 1:12 PM Harri Haataja wrote: > https://puri.sm/learn/blobs/ Indeed, blobs seems to be one point. > > Another thing seems to be that they advertise that these laptops > have no hidden features or remote control. How they could claim to > guarantee this and how a customer could possibly believe them, I > don't know. > > Having hardware kill switches is also nice, but guarantees that > they truly stop any access to camera, mic, or whatnot might be hard > to make. > > Trust or no trust, they might be offering some desirable hardware > there. Good points. Something that might have been unclear from my original use of the words "put together 'open' hardware" is that they are simply gathering together hardware from various vendors, not manufacturing the hardware themselves. They are assembling laptops and trying to work with vendors they find acceptable. But I wasn't so drawn by the privacy issues as I was to the idea of having a high end laptop that might be documented enough that one could port another OS to it. Jim --001a114d8b22f0576d054121485d Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
On Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 1:12 PM Harri Haataja <realblades@gmail.com> wrote:
> https://puri.sm/learn= /blobs/ =C2=A0Indeed, blobs seems to be one point.
>
=
> Another thing seems to be that they advertise that these laptops<= /div>
> have no hidden features or remote control. How they could cl= aim to
> guarantee this and how a customer could possibly beli= eve them, I
> don't know.
>=C2=A0
&= gt; Having hardware kill switches is also nice, but guarantees that
> they truly stop any access to camera, mic, or whatnot might be hard=
> to make.
>=C2=A0
> Trust or no tr= ust, they might be offering some desirable hardware
> there.

Good points.=C2=A0 Something that might have been u= nclear from my
original use of the words "put together '= open' hardware" is that
they are simply gathering togeth= er hardware from various vendors,
not manufacturing the hardware = themselves.=C2=A0 They are assembling
laptops and trying to work = with vendors they find acceptable.

But I wasn'= t so drawn by the privacy issues as I was to the idea of
having a= high end laptop that might be documented enough that
one could p= ort another OS to it.

Jim

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