[HH] Almost Completely Open Source Laptop

[Tom Metro]

The Almost Completely Open Source Laptop Goes on Sale
http://mprod.wired.com/2014/04/novena/

  Earlier this year, the two Singapore-based engineers fashioned a
  laptop made almost entirely from open source hardware, hardware whose
  designs are freely available to the world at large. They called it
  Project Novena. Anyone could review the designs, looking for bugs and
  security flaws, and at least in theory, that meant you could be
  confident the machine was secure from top to bottom, something that's
  more desirable than ever in the post-Edward Snowden age.
  ...
  Starting today, you can order your own pre-built Novena laptop through
  the crowd-funding site Crowd Supply, and it will ship out in the
  coming months.
  ...
  The project is part of larger movement towards open source hardware.
  ... If you share designs, others can make them better. The new,
  commercial version of the Novena does include some parts that are
  closed source, such as the processor, but Huang and Cross have tried
  to minimize these as much as possible.
  ...
  ...designed so that you can readily expand the hardware that's inside.
  "Half of it is empty," Huang says of the machine. "It's designed with
  the thought that you would add to it yourself."
  ...
  You can purchase a version of the machine, including the aluminum
  case, high-definition display, and motherboard for $1,195. For $1,995,
  you also get a battery and a 240 gigabyte solid-state hard drive.
  ...
  You can also buy just the motherboard for $500 and use it with your
  own case.
  ...
  All versions of the Novena run the open source Linux operating
  systems, and they're powered by an ARM processor... Yes, these
  machines are a bit underpowered by today's standards, and they're even
  more expensive than a premium laptop...


It's less of a laptop and more of a portable:

  The aluminum version of the machine is unusual in that the display
  sits on the outside of the case. When you lift the case lid, you see
  not a keyboard but the insides of the machine. That makes it easy to
  add new components. You then attach your own external keyboard, as you
  would with an iPad or some other tablet PC.

See the photo, but basically it is a "pizza box" configuration, where
the display makes up the lid. You open the box and prop the display at
the desired angle with an easel stand. Exposed in the base of the box is
the motherboard. I guess it is up to you to tote around a keyboard
separately.


The pitch is that this is open design for improved security, "...it's
open source, for people who care about the security, privacy." But the
article doesn't explore any of the specific of how they accomplished
that, such as all the usual proprietary binary blobs that would need to
be replaced.


  Lifton also emphasizes that if you purchase one of these laptops, you
  shouldn't think of yourself as an investor in company. You're simply
  getting a laptop at a lower price than others will in the future.

As crowd funders of the Oculus Rift recently were reminded, when the
company cashed out to a Facebook acquisition, and the original
supporters were left out of the windfall.

The SEC has changed some of its investment rules to potentially
accommodate taking an equity stake in a business through crowd funding.
I wonder when we'll see sites designed to facilitate that, instead of
these pre-sales online stores.

 -Tom