| > how big of a project would it be to create a fully libre (whatever you want to call you it) laptop? Like how feasible is it to use "free" components put together into a package and what kind of budget would be required? Very big, and unfeasible? I think, to start with, the goal can't be "a laptop". It'll be obsolete in an instant, likely even long before hitting the market. IMHO the goal should be building up a ecosystem of companies producing libre components (from which one hopefully eventually would be able to source everything needed for a laptop). There is some movement in this direction (e.g. OSHWA, FOSSi, Skywater PDK), but you know, starting from the bottom so currently mostly microcontroller level stuff. Long way from a laptop still. > China A regime hellbent on surveilling everything their citizens do suddenly caring about the personal freedoms Stallman worries about? I'm quite sure that whatever China is doing to rein in the surveillance capitalists it's not because of their threat to personal freedom but rather because they have become powerful enough to pose a threat to the party. > And then proceed to go into every industry with right to repair issues. Deere tractor competitors, home appliances, and so on. In the name of component longevity and repairability. All of this to repudiate forced obsolescence and to promote end user freedoms. I have great hopes for the right to repair movement. They might eventually achieve something big. As opposed to RYF, which is problematic as the article and this discussion points out, and is destined to be nothing but an extremely niche thing only a few fanatics will ever care about. |