Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

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We will build a state-of-the-art data center that will cover all your hosting needs; based on fully libre[1] software, libre boot firmware and performant libre-friendly hardware. We will always respect your freedoms and your privacy - we don't spy on you.

- based on 100% libre software and libre-friendly hardware with Libreboot, including our front- and back-ends

So if you're limited to Libreboot, the last set of Intel processors you can support came out in, what? 2009? 2010? Cross referencing the list of "supported" systems[0] with some general googling for their release dates[1], 2010 seems to be it, unless their data center is gonna run on a rack of Macbook 2's and Chromebook C201's.

Either way, it's hardly "state of the art" hardware by any stretch. Maybe they'll go with some custom RISC processors?

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libreboot#Supported_systems

[1]https://www.techpowerup.com/119540/asus-releases-kgpe-d16-so...

Yup, was about to write that. A bit more information:

They're planning to run a Asus KGPE-D16 AMD motherboard. This is a 2009 motherboard.

From Libreboots website:

> Libreboot has support for fam15h AMD hardware (~2012 gen) and some older Intel platforms (~2006-2009 gen).

> It is extremely unlikely that any post-2008 Intel hardware will ever be supported in libreboot

> It is extremely unlikely that any post-2013 AMD hardware will ever be supported in libreboot

https://libreboot.org/faq/

This project has no legs.

We've chosen the D16 because it is available now - with free/libre boot firmware, without binary blobs. The systems are very performant, despite their "age" (the CPUs we use were released 4 years ago (6284 SE), a system can have up to 32 CPU cores with 2.7GHz).

So from the performance perspective, systems based on the D16 are still able to compete with other, newer systems. From the "respecting your freedoms"-perspective, the D16 is unsurpassed AFAIK.

These systems are in fact a practical solution for free/libre software idealists and people who don't want to live in an Orwellian society.

That being said, relying only on this hardware would be foolish indeed. Not only because it will become too expensive to run at some point, like any hardware that gets older, but also because x86 seems to be a dead-end because it's becoming more and more locked-up.

We're planning to use openPOWER systems in the near future and move away from x86, to provide the best services for people who care about their freedom.

More will be revealed in campaign updates, we've just started the campaign and there will be campaign updates over the next 39 days that will interest you.

PS: This project has wings instead.

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