> desktop Linux user like me, open hardware is already a reality

Power or RISC-V ISA hardware are in low stock, have very few, specialised vendors and are not affordable. I have great sympathy for people who refuse to pay the outrageous difference to off-the-shelf hardware that can be bought anywhere just to gain a level of privacy that they should have in the first place.

AMD and Intel have rootkits in their hardware which are designed to be exceedingly difficult to remove. If the customer is a spy agency, they will ship with the rootkit disabled. If the customer is just a normal person like the one writing the article, one will not be able to have one for money or good words.

I seriously doubt either Intel or AMD ship different silicon to the NSA or whoever else. At least from what I've read, the only difference (at least on Intel) is the "NSA bit", that can actually be turned on on any chip these days. System76 actually ships machines with it enabled by default.

The NSA bit? Do you mean this setting to toggle Intel ME?

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3220476/researchers-say-no...

Yep, that's the one. I've heard people referring to it as "the NSA bit" because it was supposedly implemented at the request/demand of the NSA.

If true, the irony of the NSA asking not for their hardware to (possibly) spy on them is rich.

What is ironic about it? All spy agencies, everywhere on the planet, do two things:

* spy on others

* try not to get spied on

The Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad was the last CPU where the "Management Engine" could be completely wiped and disabled.

This is my experience in removing the ARC firmware code from two different HP desktops (I attached both BIOS images):

https://github.com/corna/me_cleaner/issues/233

These PCs are quite inexpensive. I run OpenBSD with hardened Chrome on one of them, for all of my finances.

If you're going through all that effort, then why bothering with hardening Chrome? Why wouldn't you start with Firefox, which doesn't require unGoogling to be considered secure?

OpenBSD's Chrome had pledge() first, but you're right, I should consider Firefox.

However, there was a recent Firefox bug in OpenBSD, and the patches weren't applied uniformly. It does seem that Chrome is more consistent, and gets more attention.

https://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article;sid=20200109141600

If you’re referring to Intel ME and the AMD PSP, people who have analyzed the PSP seem to think it’s safe: https://youtu.be/bKH5nGLgi08?t=47m14s

The issue with open hardware is that DRM vendors don't support it. A fully open phone doesn't have hardware DRM keys so you won't get FullHD in Netflix. And now you've lost 90% of the market.

Yeah, even when you boot up into Netlfix in Epiphany browser or something and discover you can't. It's not a great OOTB experience for new Linux users, never mind being locked out entirely. But that said, I don't really know how to fix the DRM problem without first making progress on open hardware. Viability and market share in spite of the adversity is the only chance I can see.

It still might fail. We try because we feel it is too important to simply do nothing, not because we expect mass success.

Maybe this is something that is a bit facile of me to say, but I like to try to compartmentalise, such that I have a little tablet for media stuff which I use to cast to TV via Chromecast. The other stuff not having Netflix access (both phone and laptop) doesn't bother me so much, and keeps a distinction between open and closed at home. The nice perk is that Chromecast is now doable from laptops under GNOME and will likely become available on phone OSes like PureOS etc too in time.

Not great for normies, but that's my tip anyway. Media consumption is a wedge issue and if you're prepared to spend money for privacy, there are a few ways it can be done.

I think the solution is to convince more people that we can live happy lives without access to big-budget entertainment. I've been mostly going without for about two years now, though I've wavered a few times.

IDK, many people spend their whole lives glued to the TV or movies. it feels like it has only gotten worse. it also feels like people don't have hobbies these days. I think to convince people of what you're saying, we need to get people back into having more hobbies. or at least reading or something

The only solution I know is very labor intensive process (and kind of not covid friendly atm), Call up said friend and meet them in person for coffee / hikes / whatever you two like. Refuse invites to do "screen time" things...

I think the trick is to start viewing the problem through the lens of anti-trust/pro-competition law. Something like mandating compulsory licensing of DRM technologies so that the DRM manufacturer and Hollywood studios don't get to be kingmakers in the browser or operating systems markets.

IANAL but seems to me like laws along the lines of "you can reverse engineer DRM without being arrested" and "the patent holder/whatever of the DRM cannot deny you a license to use this without a good reason" seem like the right direction to me. Then the linux distros or anyone else can go off and build/integrate the DRM to the extent that they wish.

How can you mandate that DRM be licensed to clients that can't or won't actually enforce it? That would be mandatory support for copyright violations.

Copyright violations would continue to be illegal. I am not proposing that they be legalized (though copyright law could use several reforms as well). I am proposing that for instance Google ought to be required to license Widevine to anyone who wants to build an implementation for it.

Because Widevine is so widespread and acts as a gatekeeper for content (for example Netflix), if Google doesn't bless your platform with Widevine support you're essentially dead as a consumer media platform.

Google should not have this kind of power because competition is good.

Yea, it's not a great experience; fortunately, yarrr! thar be options, matey!

Seriously, I have slowly become subscribed to all of the streaming services; and I still use a system that automatically obtains rips of the content I actually want to consume. Having everything served to me in Plex instead of needing to remember/look up where something was streaming, load up that app, be at the mercy of my shitty connection, etc.

I fantasize of forced HDCP resulting in anti-trust action over what they forced upon thr market. The needless wasteful complexity of not being able to use a splitter and encrypting and decrypting both ends is clear consumer harm. Sadly that is unlikely to see a push.

Why don't just fuck Netflix app then? I can pay for subscription and get the content from torrents in any desired quality.

For me Lenovo have been in between the pure and wonderful but too expensive for me of System 76 and the Pinebook Pro which I own but is too slow and low end to use for my daily get stuff done machine, which instead is an ideapad 3 with ubuntu 20.04.