Yep that is the crux of the argument, only as discussed before, unless YOU, and YOU ALONE, are an engineer and can understand all of the code that is part of your system, then the argument is no different than for that on a closed source system, because it all boils down to trust.
I also disagree with your premise of software being slowed because of the closed source nature. Reality would seem to disagree. The vast majority of open source projects are amaturish and incomplete, light years behind in terms of design and features. If what you are saying was true, than the open source community would have superior software by now, and yet, they do not. Absolutely do not.
If the world was different and didnāt run the way it does, then sure, open source could be very useful in breeding innovation.
Because the world is the way it is, the vast majority of programmers (myself included) work on closed source projects.
Like I said, as a voluntary measure, open source is fantastic. The second someone says it is unethical to make closed source, is where I 100% disagree and scream hypocrite!
I used laptops with 1920Ć1200 since year 2004 and am not interested in anything lower. I do not demand anything higher either although I would not mind.
I am a little confused. I am telling you what the current situation with WiFi is. I believe that the current situation with WiFi will not change in the v5 laptops.
Basically all Intel CPUs released in the last 12 years have the homunculus CPU (Intel ME).
Technically you are correct that, therefore, a really old Intel CPU is better than a current Intel CPU - but it also illustrates the trade-off. It is only better in one aspect. It is surely worse in all other aspects.
As a comparison with SSDs, I think it falls down. I would much rather have the latest fastest biggest baddest Intel CPU, with the homunculus CPU disabled as far as is possible, than to have to use a 12 year old CPU.
The potential issues with SSDs are well known.
If we were talking about a server running a database doing 1000 transactions a second then fine but for a laptop, 1000 times total writes would be good going. With a decent SSD controller doing wear leveling and assuming that you monitor the health and utilisation of your SSD, itās just not that big a deal. (For example, I just checked my home server and at current rates the SSD might die after 100 years. I reckon that both I and the server itself will die before that - as well as the fact that all of the server hardware will be completely obsolete long before that.)
Of perhaps greater concern is the inability to do a secure erase on an SSD when it is retired.
the way this rings in my mind is like so: āletās keep BOTH as CHOICES for people but STOP infusing trillions of fiat currency into closed-source software for big-tech/gov abuseā
Purism already has a good solution for 802.11n on the Librem 5 with the Redpine Signals RS9116 via USB 2.0 on an M.2 card. I assume that this was a custom order, because I canāt find it for sale anywhere else.
Here are Purismās options:
Keep using crappy Atheros WiFi/BT (costs less and less work for Purism).
Change the Intel reference board design from miniPCIe to M.2, so it can use that same WiFi/BT M.2 card in the Librem 13/15 v5 as the Librem 5 (more work for Purism and M.2 is more expensive).
Do a custom order for the RS9116 on a mPCIe card (which is more expensive). The mPCIe standard supports USB 2.0, so I assume this should be able to work with the Intel reference board design.
I am predicting this option - thatās what I was saying, not because I think it is the best - and I am completely OK with being wrong in my prediction.
Would be happier with this option after it has been tested in a wide variety of real customer environments i.e. once Evergreen has shipped.
Also, USB 2.0 is a bit slow for recent WiFi generations, or even for 802.11n ! You might get away with that on a phone because its overall capacity to do anything with data at that rate is more limited than an x86 laptop.
In other words, what you really want is 802.11ac via USB 3.0 on an M.2 card that doesnāt require blobware.
If the really high-end CPU was an option, I would be buying straight away. I was thinking something like this:
And also: some nice GPU wouldnāt hurt either. I know that the proprietary driver comes with a binary blob, but thatās usersā discretion to install it or not.
I would be using it the same way I do now on my desktop: I run fedora on the host which is using the integrated video card and doesnāt touch the dedicated GPU. And I use two virtual machines: a fedora VM for tensorflow, and a windows vm for gaming. Both accessing the GPU using VT-d.
I think going for the highest end CPU/GPU that does not have binary blobs would be ideal. One of the primary selling points of Purism laptops is that they ship with ME disabled and open source drivers. That said, the 13 and 15 are on the high-end scale of laptop prices, so having a few extra hundred dollars on the base price would make sense if it would mean a significant power upgrade for the laptops overall.
