this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Hello everyone,

I've been wondering, why has no one built an entirely free (as in freedom) computer yet? For humans to be unable to share each other's knowledge to build one of the most important technologies ever created for society, how is it that we have yet to have full knowledge about how our systems operate?

I get that companies are basically the ones to blame, and I know there are alternatives like the Talos II by Raptor Computing, but still, how do we not have publicly available full schematics for just one modern computer? I'm talking down to firmware-level stuff like proprietary ECs, microcode, hard drive/SSD firmware, network controllers, etc. How do we not have a fully open system yet?

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[–] aniki@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago

Traditionally the barrier to enter the hardware market has been absurd but fabrication has come a LONG way and the libre-computer movement is having a hayday right now! Lots and lots of interesting hardware and specifications are coming out. RISC-V is going to be massive once the toolchains, compilers, and binaries are more mature and faster hardware has come out.

[–] Chakravanti@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago

Puri.sm with Librem laptops & phones. Undoubtedly there'll be a bunch of shittalkers showing up.

[–] RedtheBean@mastodon.social 0 points 9 months ago

@Zeon there was a program - one computer per kid or something... I think we can just build this shit... design, fund, produce, distribute

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