The article's title unfortunately makes it sound like this is a problem unique to Framework laptops.
However, they do mention in the article that "this situation is not unique to Framework"
I really admire what Framework has been trying to build. Glad that they were able to fix this issue promptly!
pcdoodle 20 hours ago [-]
I really love their hardware (13" 11th gen is my rig), imagine if they made a phone!
Pet_Ant 24 hours ago [-]
If stuff like the Raptor Talos can exist, surely the community can come together to support a company building an x86-64 motherboard that is completely binary-blob free...
estimator7292 22 hours ago [-]
There is a very, very good reason we don't have homebrew x86 boards. They're incredibly difficult and expensive to design, produce, and verify. Modern hardware has crazy high clock rates and even tighter timing tolerances. Beyond that, you have to convince whichever OEM to sell you the chipset in small quantities. And then you have to write miles of drivers and firmware and a BIOS.
And then you need to acquire and test every combination of CPU and RAM that any customer might conceivably use, then patch your miles of firmware to support each chip.
Oh and also you have to ensure your firmware can never, ever fail in such a way that cuts off fans or cranks up CPU voltage.
It's an incredibly involved process, which is why only big companies have the resources to pull it off. It's not impossible for a community board to be made, but it's something that would take years of work and a lot of money.
Pet_Ant 19 hours ago [-]
But don't most of the design issues apply to Talos as well?
And if it's security focussed, I think it's acceptable to say "It's AM4 (not 5), and only works with this RAM brand with these times and costs 5 times as much". It's a niche, and when people are into a niche they take the tradeoffs they get.
amluto 21 hours ago [-]
The UEFI shells are generally built from open source upstream code. IMO the real issue is that there is something quite wrong with a security model that thinks it’s a problem that someone can run a UEFI shell and modify memory but does not consider it a problem that one can boot their favorite Windows or Linux kernel and act as LocalSystem or root.
Sophira 20 hours ago [-]
Secure Boot is not something that should be part of a consumer computer at all, in my opinion. Enterprises might have some use for it, but for a consumer who wants to be able to do anything they want with their computer, it doesn't make sense.
integralid 19 hours ago [-]
I am a consumer who is concerned about evil maid attacks and consider secure boot a good solution for this problem. I don't understand why this "doesn't make sense".
Secure boot never stopped me from doing anything I wanted with my hardware.
gsora 19 hours ago [-]
Secure boot-enabled devices allow you to do anything you want, even enrolling your own keys. What's stopping you from doing that?
UltraSane 16 hours ago [-]
Secure boot greatly increases computer security for everyone.
__alexander 23 hours ago [-]
> UEFI-level anti-cheat bypasses
Anyone have a hash? I would love to reverse engineer one of these.
frogperson 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
monooso 1 days ago [-]
"Alignment with the far right" is a complete misrepresentation.
Framework sponsors a few open source Linux projects, some of which have contributors with controversial opinions. Describing these projects as "far right" is completely unfair to the hundreds of people who have worked on them.
The common refrain is that companies should sponsor more open source projects. Apparently they also need to be the "correct" open source projects.
1 days ago [-]
estimator7292 22 hours ago [-]
I mean, it shouldn't be morally objectionable to not support people who think that certain classes of people are sub-human, deserving of deportation, harassment, arrest and abuse, or outright murder.
It should be morally objectionable to support and promote such people regardless of their product. If think the "wrong" people don't deserve human rights, you don't get to play with the other kids.
Human rights overrides this asshole's privilege of being promoted. It overrides your right to participate in civilized society because you have chosen to be an uncivilized and antisocial person.
BizarroLand 17 hours ago [-]
Your words are not wrong, but this isn't relevant.
You sound like the crazy uncle screaming about 5G covid nanoparticles at thanksgiving dinner right now.
eccesignum 1 days ago [-]
I think this "backdoor" could be just a mistake as eclypsium disclosed it to framework and they fixed it as per the article. Does that still warrant them to be in your never buy list? I personally think it makes them reputable as they swiftly fix problems that arise. I do own a framework so im obviously biased as I've had a good experience with it. What is this far right alignment you mentioned?
mitchbob 1 days ago [-]
El Reg has a good summary of the sponsorship controversies:
However, they do mention in the article that "this situation is not unique to Framework"
I really admire what Framework has been trying to build. Glad that they were able to fix this issue promptly!
And then you need to acquire and test every combination of CPU and RAM that any customer might conceivably use, then patch your miles of firmware to support each chip.
Oh and also you have to ensure your firmware can never, ever fail in such a way that cuts off fans or cranks up CPU voltage.
It's an incredibly involved process, which is why only big companies have the resources to pull it off. It's not impossible for a community board to be made, but it's something that would take years of work and a lot of money.
And if it's security focussed, I think it's acceptable to say "It's AM4 (not 5), and only works with this RAM brand with these times and costs 5 times as much". It's a niche, and when people are into a niche they take the tradeoffs they get.
Secure boot never stopped me from doing anything I wanted with my hardware.
Anyone have a hash? I would love to reverse engineer one of these.
Framework sponsors a few open source Linux projects, some of which have contributors with controversial opinions. Describing these projects as "far right" is completely unfair to the hundreds of people who have worked on them.
The common refrain is that companies should sponsor more open source projects. Apparently they also need to be the "correct" open source projects.
It should be morally objectionable to support and promote such people regardless of their product. If think the "wrong" people don't deserve human rights, you don't get to play with the other kids.
Human rights overrides this asshole's privilege of being promoted. It overrides your right to participate in civilized society because you have chosen to be an uncivilized and antisocial person.
You sound like the crazy uncle screaming about 5G covid nanoparticles at thanksgiving dinner right now.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/14/framework_linux_contr...