Re: [libreplanet-discuss] Management Engine

[Ali Razeen]

> On May 2, 2016, at 9:28 PM, Zaphod <justThisGuyYouKnow@nigge.rs> wrote:
> 
> The Libreboot project has gone into depth about this subject.
> Here are two convenient links for you to navigate to.
> 
> https://libreboot.org/faq/#intel
> https://libreboot.org/faq/#amd
> 
> et aurum non est mihi
> 
> 
> Julien Kyou on May 02:
>> I am aware that ME's are bad (Intel's and AMD's) but I cannot find the
>> information needed to make an informed decision as to whether/how-much
>> I care.
>> 
>> Until just recently I didn't even think to consider Freedom in
>> Hardware. I purchased things as if they would then belong to me. As a
>> result I have much propriety crap, but the centerpiece of my
>> collection is an Intel LGA2011-v3 cpu.
>> 
>> I am stuck because this could make fantastic (powerful) server, but at
>> what cost (to my freedom) 
> 
> <0x638FEC71.asc>

This is a topic that I think about quite often and I am very concerned. As far 
as the explanation on the libreboot page goes, it basically boils down to “no 
support for newer hardware.” I don’t know what the short-term/long-term 
solutions may be. For a while, I assumed that we might get some progress 
through the puri.sm project (https://puri.sm). They had regular blog updates on 
free-ing up the firmware and the last I heard, they were trying to disable the 
ME. Unfortunately, there has been no updates on that front. The last update 
might be the one posted here: 
https://puri.sm/posts/weekly-update-on-librem-production-2015-10-29/.

As individuals, I have no idea how much power we have. Collectively, we might 
be able to do something. There is *no* reason why the ME should be a mandatory 
feature on all new CPUs. Users must have the option of disabling it. Otherwise, 
we don’t have any freedom nor privacy. Encryption won’t be useful either 
because whoever is controlling the ME can read the private key, wherever it is 
stored, or just grab the data unencrypted when the machine is being used.

I’ve been wanting to buy a personal desktop machine for a while now and each 
time I try to spec out the machine, I come away discouraged. I’d like a modern 
X86 platform but that’s not possible. If I look at ARM-based SBCs (Single-board 
computers), they all have tons of issues too; binary blobs, promised 
source-code not being released, etc. etc.. It’s very infuriating.

I think it might not be a stretch to declare that the only way to use a “modern 
platform” is to run non-free software. If that is unacceptable, then one must 
make do with the old ThinkPads that run libreboot, 

Ali