Re: Rethinking the design of xwidgets

[Arthur Miller]

Dmitry Gutov <dgutov@yandex.ru> writes:

> On 20.10.2020 08:56, Arthur Miller wrote:
>>>    
>>> >https://www.extremetech.com/computing/259879-dell-now-shipping-laptops-intels-management-engine-disabled
>>>
>>> I know about Purism, but this news about Dell may be interesting.
>>> Thanks.
>> I just looked up at dell.se; I don't see it mentioned that they have
>> disabled ME; the article is from 2017. I can't even choose to buy it
>> without Windows.
>
> Yes, sorry. Seems this info if outdated. The model with which you could
> seemingly still do that at the beginning of this year
> (https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/eidk1x/how_to_buy_a_dell_laptop_with_the_intel_me/)
> is no longer available.
>
> That still leaves System76 and me_cleaner, though.

I see one problem with Purism.

Consider Intel and Purism. What considers me, they are both US based
private business (I don't know how much US or private Intel is, but I
guess). So what we are doing is exchanging a blob for company A for a
blob of company B. Blob from B should disable blob from A. How do I know
B is not run secretely by some goverment organisation that likes
to spy on it's own citizens and foreign ones. Just recently we learned
there was a supposedly independent Swiss company that sold a
cryptography machines to goverments all over the world. It turned out it
was secretely collaborating with CIA that gott keys to decrypt
everyone's secrets :D. Russians never bought it, but some other
countries did.

Idea of blobs is bad; and Dr. Richard S. is completelycorrect about
blobs not being acceptable. But then, we need to live in this world as
it is; so we need a sustianable solution for the future. I don't know if
limiting what Emacs can do on capabilities of a machine from the past is
a best strategy; but I am not very wise, and certainly did not do enough
research and thinking in the area, so this is just my ramblings and
consideration; unfortunately I have no answers myself.