aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/www/news/talos.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'www/news/talos.md')
-rw-r--r--www/news/talos.md41
1 files changed, 41 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/www/news/talos.md b/www/news/talos.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..28aafc94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/www/news/talos.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+% TALOS II Secure Workstation, from Raptor Engineering
+% Leah Rowe
+% 15 August 2017
+
+Recently, [Raptor Engineering](https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/) has launched
+a new series of workstation and server computers. These are high-end systems,
+using the libre IBM POWER9 architecture, and the boot firmware is entirely
+Free Software like Libreboot.
+
+This is the *first* OEM actually producing computers, from the factory assembly
+line, with completely libre boot firmware. The boot firmware, operating system
+and everything else is entirely Free Software. While not technically libreboot,
+the boot firmware on TALOS II is Free Software, so it was decided that the
+TALOS II would be promoted here on libreboot.org.
+
+If you are in the market for a high-end, secure workstation or server with
+100% free boot firmware (like Libreboot) and operating system, produced by
+an OEM *hardware manufacturer* that cares about freedom, look no further than
+the TALOS II from Raptor Engineering!
+
+Their website for pre-orders is here:
+<https://www.raptorcs.com/TALOSII/>
+
+An entry for the TALOS II has also been added to the
+[suppliers page](../suppliers.md) on libreboot.org.
+
+Raptor Engineering is the same company that ported the ASUS KFSN4-DRE,
+KPGE-D16 and KCMA-D8 motherboards to Libreboot. In addition, they added support
+for Hybrid Graphics on the ThinkPad T400 which Libreboot supports, enabling
+those laptops to be used in freedom (with the AMD GPU disabled, in favour of
+the Intel GPU which Libreboot has free video initialization for).
+
+In response to the TALOS II launch I, Leah Rowe, have removed the Libreboot D16
+(TALOS II's main competitor) from minifree.org, and removed the Minifree D16
+entries from the [suppliers page](../suppliers.md) on libreboot.org.
+I encourage Vikings and Technoethical, also present on that suppliers page, to
+do the same and discontinue their D16 products. The TALOS II is very important
+for the future of free, libre computing and indeed the free software community
+as a whole; if TALOS II fails, we will be stuck for a very long time without
+any viable high-end workstations that are libre. High-end hardware is necessary
+for modern software development.