[fnoobor]

Regarding the taxes (referring to the EU only), Minifree didn't do anything wrong: If you buy hardware as an end-consumer, you're being billed the taxes of the originating country (in this case, the UK).

That's different for most services, e.g. if you ship a laptop to Minifree and they just flash it and send it back, they have to bill the taxes of your country. If they do any of it differently, they're doing a mistake.

There are other companies that can provide you with Libreboot, blob-free coreboot or other libre boot solutions on your Thinkpad if you're unhappy with their service (according to your experience that seems to be an appropriate response).

Minifree doesn't stand for the quality standard for the whole "libre community" as Albert Heijn (a supermarket chain) doesn't set the gold standards for the whole supermarket industry.

[mycall]

I thought most mainboards let you flash your own BIOS/UEFI using USB. Why ship a laptop?

[cryptarch]

These laptops require a dedicated programmer, and they're the most up-to-date laptop models that come without remote manufacturer backdoor ("Management Engine").

I won't have the time to set this up myself soon, so I went ahead and bought one. It's my rainy day laptop.