-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Other] Free BIOS on ThinkPenguin hardware Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:54:34 -0500 From: Christopher Waid chris@thinkpenguin.com Reply-To: chris@thinkpenguin.com To: tobias@platen-software.de
No.
None of our hardware supports coreboot unfortunately. coreboot is only one piece of the puzzle that makes a system not completely free. There are other pieces of microcode within the system that will never be free. That is not to say we don't want to port coreboot. This however is a non-trivial project requiring significant resources. With an ever-changing hardware environment it is unlikely to occur without a major player making the effort.
At this time a system with an AMD processor is the most likely candidate that you will see supporting coreboot in the near future. This however isn't the ideal situation as AMD ties its processors and graphics chipsets together. AMD's graphics chipsets are not free. While AMD has put forward specifications and documenation for free software graphics drivers to be written the firmware remains non-free. As a result we can only ship with Intel graphics. This excludes us from selling AMD/ATI computers.
Chris
Is coreboot supported by ThinkPenguin hardware. Coreboot is a Free Software project aimed at replacing the proprietary BIOS (firmware) found in most computers. You will find more information about a free BIOS at http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/supportlinuxbios.html