Thinkpad T60p
Recently something went wrong on my laptop so I was not able to be online for several days. A fast solution wasn’t there. This meant my needs changed and I decided to go for a second laptop so I could keep one as a ready back-up.
As a Fellow of the Free Software Foundation Europe, I read about the FSF Respects Your Freedom certification-program and decided a secondhand laptop with coreboot and GNU Linux-libre would be a suitable solution.
Going for a secondhand seemed for me the way to go: it is cost-effective and better for the environment. If you have a popular model then spare parts are readily available.
So when Kevin Keijzer had a refurbished Thinkpad on offer, I was happy to be informed. He engineered the best parts of two Thinkpads into one, and thanks to the Libreboot project he was able to flash the laptop using Flashrom. He installed the operating system of my choice on top of that. For me that is Trisquel, as it runs GNU Linux-libre and it is being endorsed by the FSF. The laptop would not pass the FSF’s Respects Your Freedom certification because of the 64 kB VGABIOS.
Kevin combining the best parts of two Thinkpads into one
Kevin and I agreed on a price we could both live with, and I was happy to receive a high level of service. The laptop doesn’t contain any clear to see scratches, it is flashed with SeaBIOS, installed with Trisquel 7 GNOME and the programs I specified. I encourage any Free Software user to contact Kevin to experience his quality engineering and service level.
Kevin flashing coreboot
In the time I was without a working computer I freed the one of a collegue by installing Ubuntu. On his laptop I removed bloatware and replaced Office with LibreOffice.
Now that everything runs smoothly again I can sync documents and that is convenient in case of an emergency – especially if you translate for Free Software Foundation Europe.
