Libreboot Adds Support For An Old Dell Laptop That Can Be Found For ~$100 Used

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Libreboot Adds Support For An Old Dell Laptop That Can Be Found For ~$100 Used

Libreboot as the downstream of Coreboot focused on providing fully open-source system firmware support has added support for the Dell Latitute E6400, a laptop from the Intel Core 2 Duo days that was popular with many businesses and can be found via various used channels for around $100...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Libreboot-Dell-Latitute-E6400

[katt]

Who in their right mind purchases a $100 laptop with a Core2Duo though?

[Anux]

Who in their right mind purchases a $100 laptop with a Core2Duo though?

Someone whos not a rich prick maybe?

[Silent]

Who in their right mind purchases a $100 laptop with a Core2Duo though?

I have same thoughts about it... First gen i3 are very useful for non demand use cases, but C2D is obsolete for almost all things - too slow for desktop, too power-hungry for light-server raspberry substitute where something like AMD GX-415GA can do same job with 1/3 of the power consumption and fanless cooling. Libreboot for HP 620/520/630 were more interesting I think.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Someone whos not a rich prick maybe?

I interpreted that post in a different way. If you pay anywhere near $100 for an E6400 with a 45nm CPU from 2008 / 2GB DDR2 / 80GB mechanical 2.5" hard drive, you are getting absolutely screwed in terms of performance per dollar.

For close to $100, you can step up to a much newer Dell E7440 (or E7240) with a half decade newer 22nm Haswell i5/i7, 8GB of DDR3, and a 128GB or 256GB SATA SSD. This latter machine is still fast enough and has enough RAM to be useful for basic computing today. On top of the huge performance bump, it has the dimensions of a more modern laptop and isn't something you'd hate to lug around or use in your lap. Oh and that Haswell generation was the last Dell laptop with an excellent keyboard layout.

[Anux]

Then I'm sorry for my somewhat provoking statement. Ofcourse the price will vary heavy depending where you live. I could get a E6400 for 90 € and a E7440 for 125 € so I guess it depends, no one would want an older system for the same price as a newer one with the same configuration.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Of course the price will vary heavy depending where you live.

Definitely true. The E6400 may not make sense vs. the E7440 in places like the USA or western Europe, but I could see the cost difference being prohibitively expensive in some countries. Maybe in another 5 years or so something like the E7440 could be the bottom of the barrel in less developed countries, which would be great since they are still decent machines.

[ajboyle]

The more obvious question might be: what would be the benefit of putting libreboot on such a system, other than just curiosity?

Strange that support for obsolete hardware is making news with libreboot. Hmm.

[gnarlin]

The truth is that Libreboot will always be fighting up a cliff to work on the proprietary X86 platform. I'm hoping for a future platform (ATX/uATX/ITX/laptops) designed around a RiscV CPU which is fully Libre/open for Libreboot to work on. There are somewhat decent x86 emulators now that can even run Steam on a good day. We'll never have a Free computing platform until we stop begging Intel and AMD to set their secrets Free. They never will.

[skeevy420]

The more obvious question might be: what would be the benefit of putting libreboot on such a system, other than just curiosity?

Strange that support for obsolete hardware is making news with libreboot. Hmm.

Perhaps they're cases of both you gotta start somewhere and they're cheap in case you FUBAR the board with your first few tries.