Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by sangnoir » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

rangibaby wrote: post #109

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…

Low res on a CRT looks much, much better than low res on an LCD panel though

True, but not even the superior antialiasing properties of CRT can make 640x480 look better than a 1080p LCD panel.

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

#132

Post by flashdance » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:07 PM UTC

flashdance wrote: post #78

G8WyaX wrote: post #18

What about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseband_processor#Security_co... in Purism 5 phone?

The Purism 5 is going to be using a baseband processor that's similar to ones used in car infotainment systems. It won't share RAM with the CPU and will be isolated from the rest of the phone. It'll even have a hardware kill switch, where you can physically sever the circuit, if you're that paranoid! The CEO of purism did an interview where he went to a moderate degree of depth on the technical side, you can watch it…

Just noticed I said Purism 5. It's called the Librem 5--and of course I see this after it's too late to edit! :'(

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

#133

Post by jxramos » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:16 PM UTC

On a side note I liked reading about a phone campaign by the same group. This post introduced me to it.

Librem 5 – A Security and Privacy Focused Phone https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

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

#134

Post by earenndil » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:22 PM UTC

guaka wrote: post #33

For website of a purist software freedom company I was surprised to see Privacy Badger show up with a red 5: ajax.googleapis.com fonts.googleapis.com secure.gravatar.com fonts.gstatic.com code.jquery.com

Use decentraleyes!

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

#135

Post by throw2016 » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:28 PM UTC

skj wrote: post #128

nilved wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, this never happens. The value is certainly less than the data you're selling about your users to Google.

Value to whom? The site loads faster (so people like it slightly better), it's easier to maintain (less files to serve and keep track of), all for the cost of something the site owners didn't pay for in the first place.

This is often repeated but without any data to back it up its a bit of a myth.

My tests show local resources consistently loading faster than making a link to Google. These are supposed to be cached but thing like fonts are always loaded again. Anyone can repeat this for themselves.

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

#136

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:31 PM UTC

holtalanm wrote: post #127

dmix wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gnome has had good high DPI support for a while now...

I'm running Gnome on my retina displayed laptop and I can confirm that this is not true. The high DPI suppport on gnome equates to 'SCALE ALL THE THINGS 2x DERPA DERPA DERP' And the scaling is integer-based. So, I can choose 1x, 2x, or any other whole number. Useless as hell for me, who wishes it was probably 1.25x. It sucks bad enough that I actually WISH I was on a 1080p screen, because with the 2x scaling i effect…

They introduced experimental support for fractional scaling in 3.26: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/09/enable-fractional-scaling...

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

#137

Post by louithethrid » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:39 PM UTC

I want to see the layout in that chip, i want to see the dissasembly that ran on it. Playing dead with a clock signal still going into it- thats not enough.

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

#138

Post by pgeorgi » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

throw2016 wrote: post #135

skj wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Value to whom? The site loads faster (so people like it slightly better), it's easier to maintain (less files to serve and keep track of), all for the cost of something the site owners didn't pay for in the first place.

This is often repeated but without any data to back it up its a bit of a myth. My tests show local resources consistently loading faster than making a link to Google. These are supposed to be cached but thing like fonts are always loaded again. Anyone can repeat this for themselves.

> Anyone can repeat this for themselves.

I tried, they came from the disk cache.

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

#139

Post by holtalanm » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #136

holtalanm wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm running Gnome on my retina displayed laptop and I can confirm that this is not true. The high DPI suppport on gnome equates to 'SCALE ALL THE THINGS 2x DERPA DERPA DERP' And the scaling is integer-based. So, I can choose 1x, 2x, or any other whole number. Useless as hell for me, who wishes it was probably 1.25x. It sucks bad enough that I actually WISH I was on a 1080p screen, because with the 2x scaling i effect…

They introduced experimental support for fractional scaling in 3.26: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/09/enable-fractional-scaling...

This is good to know. I may have to try this out and see how it works. The other option is to just install KDE since they seem to have implemented HDPI support _correctly_.

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

#140

Post by intopieces » Fri, Oct 20, 2017, 5:51 PM UTC

zingmars wrote: post #45

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…

> Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? (“Linux” is not a valid reason...) Apart from the fact that a lot of systems still have mediocre high-dpi support at best, there's also battery life, cost and the fact that 1080p on a 15" is more than adequate for most people.

$1600 for "adequate"? That's some expensive paranoia. For a computer that approaches $2k after taxes, I would want something better than adequate. Especially since at that price point, it'd be my daily driver computer.