Group: Hardware/History/Laptops Comparison

Introduction

Nowadays, some laptops are able to run only free software.

This means that they are not "just" able to run 100% free software distributions: they go way beyond that.

What initialises the hardware before loading the operating system (like a fully free distribution) is software.

This software can have many names (BIOS, EFI, UEFI etc...).

Free software initialisation code, along with a 100% free operating system, and peripherals that work with free software can result in a 100% free system on some laptops.

Installing custom BIOS/EFI/UEFI to be 100% free

• Most modern laptops do not support programming a custom UEFI
• Of those that exist, the best option would be Libreboot, which is entirely free and open source.
• In order to flash the software, additional hardware is required. These include an external SPI programmer, a test clip to attach to the motherboard's flash chip, jumper wires, and a separate host computer to run the flashing software.
• To obtain all of the previous, see the Libreboot website.

Laptop that can be 100% free

• Laptop that can be 100% free
• A full, updated list can be found here.

Other laptops

• Common laptops
• Partially free laptops that require some work to be free
• Partially free laptops that would be really hard to free

Incomplete information

• Laptops that needs to be evaluated

List of pages

This set of pages talks about laptops.

Hardware/History/Laptops_Comparison has no subpages to list.

(Note that this page does not automatically update; if you add another page under Hardware/, make sure to refresh/purge this page.)

This page was a featured resource in September 2014.

"issue" is not in the list (interest, location, project, school) of allowed values for the "Organized around" property.