Coreboot preinstalled?

[DPic]

Ah, looks like this has come up before: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=703673

[jjacobs2]

Perhaps it could be offered as an optional upgrade.

[Progressive]

The only way I would buy System76 over any other vendor who doesn't charge a Microsoft Tax would be if Coreboot were pre-installed.

Without coreboot it is no more open than any of the others

[DeadSuperHero]

Hi, folks. I'm not one to resurrect threads often, but I figured I'd contribute to the existing topic rather than just starting a new one and causing clutter.

I emailed System76 last week about Coreboot, and received a reply.

Hi, Sean.

Thanks for the email.

There haven't been any changes yet. I appreciate you voicing your interest though, and I'll pass your comments on to my managers. Do you know anything about the the ability of OEMs to brand open bios -- custom splash screens, et al? (If not, that's OK. I'm sure our R&D guys would look into that.)

Feel free to contact me if I can be of further assistance.

Best Regards,
Tom Aaron

I wasn't sure as to what all could be done about such things, but this looks fairly promising. Getting a Free BIOS replacement on an already linux-specific brand would be a fantastic thing in my opinion.

I've also started a petition to try and get System76 to get Coreboot onto all of their machines. It may not do much, but at least we'd be able to voice our opinion about it. I just know that if I could find a distributor in the United States that sold laptops with Coreboot, I'd definitely be a long-time customer.

The petition is here, for anyone who is interested: http://www.petitiononline.com/system76/petition.html

[thomasaaron]

Guys, for us, installing coreboot isn't just a matter of wanting to. It's a matter of considering our customers' needs.

There are still a lot of people out there that *need* to dual-boot windows because of proprietary software used in their jobs (mostly). We need to make sure they're taken care of.

As such, it is only fair to give them a BIOS for their system that can be updated with the windows-specific BIOS patches that constantly come down the pike. This isn't a matter of windows running on coreboot. It's a matter of making sure our customers have access to BIOS updates required by Windows. As much as we would love for everything to be open source...

I've made my management aware of your petition. Just bear in mind that there are a lot of business factors involved in such a decision.

And, as always, we are keeping our eye on coreboot.

[satsujinka]

Then make it an option. That way you can have your cake and eat it too. Besides, I'm fairly certain Windows runs just fine without those patches. I've never updated my Bios and my computer is from pre-Vista, but it runs Vista/7 just fine (if not a little slow.)
Furthermore, a Bios patch for an O.S. is just not the right way to do things. If the O.S. doesn't support the hardware then get on the O.S. maker's case, and probably the hardware maker too.

[DeadSuperHero]

Then make it an option. That way you can have your cake and eat it too.

^ This. It would be great to at least have it as an OPTION for a while, if you can't have it fully on there. Being Coreboot compatible would be good enough for me; it means that anyone that really wants to have a fully Free Software laptop would have the means to do so.

[DPic]

I'm fairly certain Windows runs just fine without those patches. I've never updated my Bios and my computer is from pre-Vista, but it runs Vista/7 just fine (if not a little slow.)
Furthermore, a Bios patch for an O.S. is just not the right way to do things. If the O.S. doesn't support the hardware then get on the O.S. maker's case, and probably the hardware maker too.

Yeah, but i believe they're talking about corporate customers who like their BIOS patches perhaps? But if coreboot was supported, why would they need those legacy BIOS patches? I'm a little confused about that.

Either way, i have to very much agree here as well. I wasn't suggesting anything more than an option:

^ This. It would be great to at least have it as an OPTION for a while, if you can't have it fully on there. Being Coreboot compatible would be good enough for me; it means that anyone that really wants to have a fully Free Software laptop would have the means to do so.

[grantwu927]

Hi all,
My mainboard is AM2+RS780+SB700.
I use "make menuconfig" command to choose motherboard.
I can only choose "Tilapia" project.
However, it is AM3+RS780+SB700.
So how can I replace the cpu code to AM2?
BR
Grant

[Progressive]

We really need the OEMs and any other companies to help press the mobo vendors for Coreboot support, and to contribute development resources.

That isn't going to happen unless we speak out. I signed that petition above for this reason.