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Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

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Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#91

Post by nerdponx »

hedora wrote: post #6

I really want one of these, but the ergonomics look awful. Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? (“Linux” is not a valid reason...) Also, as much as I would like a 15” screen, the off center keyboard is a deal-breaker. It’s just asking for RSI. Does anyone own one? How is the trackpad / keyboard / battery life / fan noise? Maybe I can deal with 1080p in exchange for a reasona…

I just wish they made this in a desktop, or in a standalone board I could build a machine around.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#92

Post by jonathanstrange »

Call me cynic, but it wouldn't surprise me if the NSA intercepted those in their hardware interception program[1] and install spyware on them whenever they are delivered to an address outside the US.

[1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173721-the-nsa-regular...

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#94

Post by jchw »

mrec wrote: post #86
jchw wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit absurd to argue that you need a high pixel density to code. It's no longer an insane luxury, but even being a relatively younger programmer I remember 640x480 being the highest resolution my first personal computer could display. What fundamentally changed about programming that now we can't even do it without 200 PPI displays? Obviously, nothing. High resolution for most people is still just a 'nice to ha…

> I remember 640x480 being the highest resolution my first personal computer could display Eeee, you were lucky. My first personal computer maxed out at 320x256, or 160x256 if you wanted more than 4 colours.

Hey, I did say I was relatively young :) I wouldn't have minded starting on Commodore 64 or Apple ][ or anything, but I missed by a decade or two. Oh well.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#95

Post by hiq »

oelmekki wrote: post #54
zsoltgyongyosi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's surprisingly easy to switch to the English layout. As a programmer, it was refreshing to leave behind the convoluted key combinations while coding. (I'm looking at you, `tilde`, on a Hungarian keyboard) On Linux, writing accents using a compose key isn't much slower than typing the letters directly either.

I've considered a few times switching to a qwerty (from french azerty), but there are two things that made me pull back: 1. french people I know who use qwerty tend to not write any accentuated characters anymore. I'm ready to accept compose keys are usable, but it clearly seems to encourage incorrect spelling when you use a language with a lot of accentuated characters in a sentence 2. vim. I really don't see myself…

1. If you care about your spelling, you just need to find the right layout (which would be "English (international AltGr dead keys)" on Debian), then it's almost as easy as the azerty keyboard: é : altgr + e ` : altgr + ` (then the letter) ¨ : shift + altgr + ' (then the letter) ^ : altgr + 6 (then the letter)

If I remember correctly it's slightly easier to type é and è on an azerty keyboard, but not that much.

2. vim is qwerty centric, the best example for me was using CTRL-[ instead of ESC which actually makes sense on a qwerty but not on an azerty. It doesn't take that much time to learn new habits.

Overall, I would advise against changing your layout unless there's another good reason. I decided to switch because I was using many computers with a qwerty layout, and only my personal computer was still with an azerty layout. It sounded more productive to just have one layout instead of having to think about it.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#96

Post by reirob »

oelmekki wrote: post #54
zsoltgyongyosi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's surprisingly easy to switch to the English layout. As a programmer, it was refreshing to leave behind the convoluted key combinations while coding. (I'm looking at you, `tilde`, on a Hungarian keyboard) On Linux, writing accents using a compose key isn't much slower than typing the letters directly either.

I've considered a few times switching to a qwerty (from french azerty), but there are two things that made me pull back: 1. french people I know who use qwerty tend to not write any accentuated characters anymore. I'm ready to accept compose keys are usable, but it clearly seems to encourage incorrect spelling when you use a language with a lot of accentuated characters in a sentence 2. vim. I really don't see myself…

Hello, I'm living in France and I made the switch to qwerty and it was one of my best work-hacks in my live (after learning touch typing). It took around 3 weeks to get used. The advantage is soo huge! Just to take your fears - I'm a heavy VI user and I have to say after switching to qwerty you will get to love VI even more. Not even talking about programming.

Regarding your concern with accents: Under Linux I am using English (International with AltGr dead keys) which allows me to compose accents by pressing AltGr then the key(s) that represent the accent and then the base character. So for à I press AltGr+Backtick and then 'a'. The advantage is that it gives me all of the accents that I need in Europe - there is no problem in writing German äÄöÖüÜß, and even for French you can easily have a œ in cœur - I would not even know how to get this one on an azerty keyboard.

For Windows there is as well a possibility to install this layout.

The other advantage is, that if you work a lot with different countries - I am remotely often on customer's computers via different remote sessions - then no matter what country, you always have qwerty - on Windows it's normally just one Alt+Shift away.

Definitely good investment and I will not go back (by the way I had to learn 3 layouts in my life - German, then French and now I am so happy with qwerty.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#97

Post by driverdan »

kbart wrote: post #32
Yaggo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do?

(Embedded) System engineer, so lot's of hex typing and editing. It's a pain without full numpad.

Here you go: https://elitekeyboards.com/products.php?sub=topre_keyboards,...

Yes, it's expensive but it'll be the nicest numpad you've ever used. Topre switches are the best.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#98

Post by whamlastxmas »

ploggingdev wrote: post #15

What do the security experts think about Librem products? Does it live up to what's promised? Any gotchas users need to be aware of? I have not come across their comments on this topic, so links to the same would be appreciated if I missed them.

They have a track record of lying about their product, though disabling IME is a big step towards living up to their marketing.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#99

Post by [deleted] »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #92

Call me cynic, but it wouldn't surprise me if the NSA intercepted those in their hardware interception program[1] and install spyware on them whenever they are delivered to an address outside the US. [1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173721-the-nsa-regular...

[deleted]

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#100

Post by bradfa »

nerdponx wrote: post #93

Does disabling the IME have implications for performance or energy consumption?

Probably no implications on performance or energy consumption. Disabling it will prevent many remote management capabilities which are desirable in corporate environments.

Some details: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/misc-devices/mei/me...

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