[HLUG] Fwd: [lugmaster] Fwd: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: Gluglug X60 Laptop now certified to Respect Your Freedom

Fri Dec 20 10:17:34 UTC 2013

Hi

Bit late for Christmas now to buy one of these but if you like your pc as
pure and free as the driven snow, this is the place to go!

Julian
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Jon Spriggs" <jon at sprig.gs>
Date: 20 Dec 2013 09:01
Subject: [lugmaster] Fwd: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: Gluglug X60 Laptop now certified
to Respect Your Freedom
To: "Lugmaster" <lugmaster at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Cc:

Spotted this today on the Ubuntu mailing list, and thought your groups
might be interested?
--
Jon "The Nice Guy" Spriggs

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Andrés Muñiz Piniella <andresmp at gmail.com>
Date: 20 December 2013 07:36
Subject: [ubuntu-uk] Fwd: Gluglug X60 Laptop now certified to Respect Your
Freedom
To: ubuntu-uk <ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com>

 Very good for this UK based company!
I now know where I am getting my next machine from. Alas! To late for thus
christmas.

------------------------------
*De:* Free Software Foundation <info at fsf.org>
*Enviado:* Fri Dec 20 02:16:12 GMT 2013
*Para:* "Andrés Muñiz Piniella" <andresmp at gmail.com>
*Asunto:* Gluglug X60 Laptop now certified to Respect Your Freedom

"Finally there is a free software laptop that respects your freedom as it
comes from the store," Richard M. Stallman.

We don't usually send press release messages to this list, but this is a
big announcement!

If you want to see even more hardware certified in 2014, please help us
reach our $450k winter fundraising goal with a $20
donation<https://u.fsf.org/ryf2013>
.
Gluglug X60 Laptop now certified to Respect Your Freedom [image: Gluglug
X60]

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, December 19, 2013 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF)
certification to Gluglug X60 laptops. The RYF certification mark means that
the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control
over the product, and privacy. This is the first laptop to receive RYF
certification from the FSF.

It can be purchased from http://shop.gluglug.org.uk.

The FSF has had a call out for a laptop sold with a free OS and free boot
system <https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html> since 2005. Today it
announced that the call has been met.

"Finally there is a free software laptop that respects your freedom as it
comes from the store," stated Richard M. Stallman, founder and president of
the FSF.

The boot programs (such as a BIOS) run when a computer is turned on and
their primary purpose is to initialize the hardware before loading the
operating system. Computer makers not only install nonfree boot programs,
but they also have made it notoriously difficult for free software
developers to have access to the necessary hardware specifications and
information needed to produce free software replacements.

When a user purchases a product that bears the Respects Your Freedom
certification mark, they can be confident they are recieving a product that
comes with a free boot program and OS, as well as documentation under free
licenses, multimedia unencumbered by proprietary formats, and the assurance
it is not known to contain any backdoors and is not designed to share
users' information without their knowledge (e.g. spyware).

"This announcement comes at a time when people have a heightened concern
over controlling their data and securing their communication. Proprietary
software is by nature fundamentally insecure, because it uses both force of
law and technological measures to prohibit a user from controlling and
securing her own computer. This new complete system runs on free software
and is backed by the FSF's commitment to do our best at ensuring respect
for your freedom and privacy," said FSF executive director John Sullivan.

The Gluglug X60 laptops are refurbished models of Lenovo's ThinkPad®† X60.
Gluglug has updated the computer by adding a modern wifi chipset, replacing
the proprietary BIOS with a free software boot system made by modifying
Coreboot to remove all proprietary microcode and proprietary blobs, and
replacing the proprietary Microsoft Windows OS with the FSF-endorsed, Trisquel
GNU/Linux <https://trisquel.info> OS.

"The Gluglug X60 laptop is a major victory for computer users and
supporters of the *Free BIOS* campaign. Not only has Gluglug produced a
100% free version of Coreboot that carries freedom to each user, but it has
made it easy and fun to install updates, which in my experience, make real
and noticeable improvements to the operation of the laptop. I also found
that despite the hardware being a few years old, the Gluglug X60 remains a
durable machine that is more than capable of running modern GNU/Linux
distro," added Joshua Gay, the licensing & compliance manager who heads-up
the FSF's RYF certification program.

Francis Rowe of Gluglug issued the following statement:

Gluglug is very proud to have achieved RYF certification and we will always
try to exceed the requirements. The mission of Gluglug is to promote free
software in a practical way by making it easy to find a system built for
total freedom. With the X60 laptops sold through the site you get
everything: free boot program, free operating system, free drivers, free
applications. The machines also come pre-fitted with a new 802.11n wireless
card that is fully compatible with free software.

The machines come fully loaded with Trisquel GNU/Linux, and they can also
have gNewSense <http://www.gnewsense.org> or Parabola
GNU/Linux<http://parabolagnulinux.org>installed on request. With the
Gluglug X60, you get full source code for
all of the tools used to create the boot program, plus documentation. If
you want to hack your machine, you can. That's really the whole concept.

You also get updates, so when the Gluglug makes a substantial change to the
firmware it ships, you will receive a copy of it along with documentation
for how to flash it and tweak it to your needs.

A project like this is especially important in this day and age when more
and more devices are becoming locked down with with things like Restricted
Boot <https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot>, and
containing hardware-based backdoors. The Gluglug provides an opt-out for
that kind of mistreatment.

To learn more about the Respects Your Freedom hardware certification,
including details on the certification of the Gluglug X60 laptops, as well
as information on source code for the device, visit https://www.fsf.org/ryf.
Hardware sellers interested in applying for certification can consult
criteria at https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/criteria.

For those needing to purchase other hardware, the FSF recommends the
h-node.org database, as well as direct users toward hardware sellers that
offer laptops with GNU/Linux preinstalled. The FSF is also asking
supporters to write to Intel
<https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/free-bios.html>asking for the company
to ship laptops with a free boot system to begin
with, so that users can buy brand new freedom-respecting hardware in the
future.
About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in
freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its
GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF
also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of
freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and
gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations
to support the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
About Gluglug

The Gluglug is a Canvey Island, Essex, UK based company dedicated to Free
Software. We sell computers that are made to respect the freedom of users
to study and hack their machine. Visit http://shop.gluglug.org.uk.
Media Contacts

Joshua Gay
Licensing & Compliance Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
licensing at fsf.org

Francis Rowe
Founder & CEO
Gluglug
info at gluglug.org.uk

†ThinkPad is a registered trademark of Lenovo.

###

*You can view this post online at
https://www.fsf.org/news/gluglug-x60-laptop-now-certified-to-respect-your-freedom
<https://www.fsf.org/news/gluglug-x60-laptop-now-certified-to-respect-your-freedom>.*

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