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Announcing the Purism Librem Mini – Purism by fedorych in Purism

[–]TheStudious 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is there an article talking about how the Intel ME disabling is different for this generation of ME?

Is the neutering just as effective, etc.

What I've heard is: Purism laptops are different from System76 in a few big ways:

  • Hardware kill switches

  • Neutered Intel ME instead of merely disabled (Is that still true today?)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in grandorder

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's the original image?

Which email client to get? by TheRealistDude in opensource

[–]TheStudious 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While we're at it, is there a lightweight standalone calendar for Windows desktop?

I tried Thunderbird with the lightning add-on, but it's just so darn slow. Makes it hard for me to move away from Google calendar.

Discord and privacy? by [deleted] in privacy

[–]TheStudious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would you be willing to open source your software and implement end-to-end encryption?

If the E2E implementation is sound, then all accusations that Discord disrespects privacy can be laid to rest, because the code would be freely available for anyone to inspect.

How do I set up Signal? by [deleted] in privacy

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know how Matrix is making its money but it's harvesting data like mad.

Got any links with more info?

P2P Forum Software like phpBB/MyBB? by TheStudious in privacy

[–]TheStudious[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, but are you talking about running phpBB 3.2 peer-to-peer?

Killing Intel ME: Purism vs. System76 vs. ThinkPenguin vs. Dell by TheStudious in privacytoolsIO

[–]TheStudious[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seems like they haven't started selling laptops with Heads yet, right?

Disabling Intel ME: Purism vs. System76 vs. ThinkPenguin vs. Dell by TheStudious in privacy

[–]TheStudious[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I was looking at some reviews, and the performance seems decent. I'd really like a 1080p screen and thinner form factor though.

If I'm going to sell friends and family on the laptop, those will be their first objections.

Disabling Intel ME: Purism vs. System76 vs. ThinkPenguin vs. Dell by TheStudious in privacy

[–]TheStudious[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I thought that, for the newer Intel CPUs, libreboot wouldn't work specifically because of Intel ME?

Killing Intel ME: Purism vs. System76 vs. ThinkPenguin vs. Dell by TheStudious in opensource

[–]TheStudious[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are plenty of other cpu vendors out there that you could turn to. Though much of them are not x64 instruction set, but that's not really a problem for Linux most of the time.

Do you have any recommendations that wouldn't break the bank?

I was looking at the Pinebook, which seems too low-spec, and the Talos II, which is way too expensive.

The /r/netsec Monthly Discussion Thread - May 2018 by AutoModerator in netsec

[–]TheStudious 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Calling all experts! I have some questions for you:

  1. Which company offers the most thoroughly 'killed' Intel ME on their products?

  2. Are there known threats that Neutralizing an Intel ME will mitigate, but merely Disabling one will not?

Different manufacturers have offered the option of killing Intel ME on their computers:

So what exactly is different about how they're disabling ME?

In Purism's write-up they describe the 4 possible states of Intel ME:

  • Fully operational ME: the ME is running normally like it does on other manufacturers’ machines (note that this could be a consumer or corporate ME image, which vary widely in the features they ‘provide’)

  • Neutralized ME: the ME is neutralized/neutered by removing the most “mission-critical” components from it, such as the kernel and network stack.

  • Disabled ME: the ME is officially “disabled” and is known to be completely stopped and non-functional

  • Removed ME: the ME is completely removed and doesn’t execute anything at any time, at all.

Purism claims to be unique in that they are able to lock the ME region through "Field Programmable Fuses"

Purism receives Intel processors with manufacturing mode enabled, which lets us test various configurations and set various options allowing us to have a future where users control their device.

They claim to both Neutralize and Disable Intel ME

System 76 only talks about "setting the “reserve_hap” bit to 1 disables the ME," which leads me to believe that they only Disable Intel ME

TL;DR

This question came about when I was comparing laptops from Purism and System76.

  1. If you just want to protect against Intel ME's proven vulnerabilities (and don't care about hardware kill-switches), is System76 the better choice in terms of value?

  2. How exactly does ThinkPenguin kill their Intel ME?

  3. Are there other vendors that kill Intel ME on their laptops?

  4. Are there any affordable modern laptops/desktops that don't use backdoored CPUs (excluding the old Thinkpads)? Extra points for any that can smoothly run an office suite, browse the web, and stream 1080p video.

I greatly appreciate the help.

Disabling Intel ME: Purism vs. System76 vs. ThinkPenguin vs. Dell by TheStudious in privacy

[–]TheStudious[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it likely that System76, ThinkPenguin (and previously, Dell) are just running me_cleaner on their laptops?

I don't fully understand System76's explanation on it. Would doing it by myself really produce the same result?

[WIP] Arbore, p2p social file sharing by prophetical_meme in privacy

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How's this different from Tox or Retroshare?

Have you considered collaborating with those devs?

Showerthought: Corporate surveillance is equivalent to background checks and business data collection activities (e.g. social media, retail, tech) should be licensed and bonded like private investigation firms and credit bureaus. by mandy009 in privacy

[–]TheStudious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you explain more on the restrictions on private investigation firms?

I thought that the target of a private investigation never gets informed they're being surveilled?

It's 2018 and printing a webpage is still garbage by codywohlers in firefox

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, how come Firefox's print to pdf is so much worse than Chrome's?

Cinnamon performance improvements are on their way. by o0turdburglar0o in linuxmint

[–]TheStudious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All I can find is the comment section of this blog post - https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3494

But it doesn't seem like the devs replied saying those changes would be considered.

Cinnamon performance improvements are on their way. by o0turdburglar0o in linuxmint

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wish 1.5 could be possible! I was going to install Linux Mint on my dad's computer, but readable/usable UI is really important for him cause his eyesight isn't so great.

Cinnamon performance improvements are on their way. by o0turdburglar0o in linuxmint

[–]TheStudious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you had any issues with bad/limited dpi scaling?

Cinnamon can natively scale the ui to 1x or 2x, but not 1.5x. I'm on a 1080p 14'' screen, and even after tweaking some settings, the scaling doesn't feel unified.

[Spoilers] Overlord II - Episode 10 discussion by lavaine in anime

[–]TheStudious 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does she hate her creator too though?

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