linuxmemes

If we're talking about security, the newer CPUs have better microcode. Those older CPUs are vulnerable to attacks such as Spectre. Older boards supported by Libreboot, such as the Haswell boards (e.g., Dell 9020 OptiPlex), which support 100% free BIOS firmware, which is to be used in conjunction with 100% free software. If you do so, you will have more security, freedom, and privacy than any other modern consumer grade computer.

Then again, these boards are old, so, given the microcode is old, if you're running a virtual machine with a bunch of malicious software, an attacker can potentially exploit your host's CPU and break out of that VM. Of course, determine your threat model. Are you running no JavaScript ever and only using libre software?

A deblobbed kernel isn't great either in some cases, you may need some patches. For example, someone was able to exploit Intel's iGPU on these older boards and gain complete access to your machine. The only way to fix this is by using a blob. Though, if you strictly only use libre software, this wouldn't be a concern as much so you wouldn't need this blob.

If you stick strictly to 100% free software, older hardware and a deblobbed kernel might be appropriate. But if you need to run blobs along with other proprietary software like JavaScript, the security provided by something like the Intel iGPU blob patch could be beneficial.

Let them try yo hack my C64 ✊🏻🤘🏻

Probably a reference to coreboot systems and maybe RISC stuff like open SPARC.

It will prevent you from doing a lot of the things that will get the NSA interested in you?

Imagine trying to brute force a password on a Dell.

Older ThinkPads had socketed CPUs, allowing you to upgrade to pre-IME Intel chips.

A correct assumption

Hello, Fellow Guix-SD user.

Ah, the call of the total information warrior - "If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide": do they track your phone wherever you drive? Ever drive past a crime in progress unknowingly? Can you prove you were not participating in the crime? Even if it is the dead of night in the warehouse district on your way home from work?

For me it's because you all never went far enough. It's not about data privacy. It was always about data scarcity. You all wanted content creators to get paid while also using that same platform to keep your stuff private. Except the way content creators get paid is working for websites and corporations that steal your data and create profiles that information brokers can trade amongst themselves to build larger profiles where they don't even need you to use any of their systems just to build your profile. But you like random bearded guy that makes cat comics. We should have always been hostile to anyone using the internet to create content in order to sell it.

Frankly, I think the people with more to hide are more virtuous than I. Labor organizers, activists, etc. If you're working to overthrow my country, awesome. Best of luck to you.

But it's also fair to say most of us will not truly benefit from writing a custom boot loader and after a certain point this is just a hobby.

You've made me miss grsec and rbac again 🥲

Selinux

Hey, let's not get crazy. I still want to use it for practical things, too. /s

I tend to just operate on the principle of: I know my setup probably wouldn't hold up for a second if some sort of organized three-letter government body decided to focus on me, but my threat model is more the kind of general internet-sweeping surveillance fuckery that goes on. I'm not doing anything especially dodgy on the internet and I think messing around with privacy stuff is fun, so my security level is faintly absurd for what it is. I'm sure someone could crack it if they were determined enough, but I assume the amount of effort required relative to what you'd find would just make it pointless anyway.

I lol’d at this. But seriously, privacy is a fundamental human right. You don’t need to have something to hide to assert your right of privacy.

copyleft source code is a telltale sign of communism, thus anon can be associated with Big terrorist like the Antifa.

It's cute that anyone thinks situation 2 would be necessary and that encryption couldn't be broken with the press of a button if someone seriously wanted your info.

Fantasy land.

Privacy is a human right, but our rights were eroded long ago.

Anyone remember rubberhoseFS or Veracrypt multiple hidden vols?

It's referring to binary blobs. A windows exe might be a binary blob.
These are distributed compiled. Even if the project is open sources, the binary blob might have been generated by a compromised compiler.

This is one of the reasons the XZ Utils compromisation went unnoticed for so long. One of the compressed files used for testing contained malicious code that would be included in the build artefacts (IE, the final compiled binary) under very narrow and specific circumstances.

So "deblobbed" means absolutely everything in the OS was built & compiled on their computer from original source code