Hello. Many of the older thinkpads were regarded as being peak for the ability to repair and easily see into them at both the hardware and software levels.

I was wondering, what PC, if any, is similar in this regard? Aside from building your own PC ofc. Any opinions are welcome. Thank you.

  • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
    30·
    9 months ago

    Aside from building your own PC ofc.

    Are you talking about a pre-built PC that has decent repairability? If so you’d really just want to avoid brands that use proprietary or irregular parts. For example Dell Optiplex computers can be bought cheap but they use their own power supply and some have smaller cases that might not fit most graphics gards.

    Is there any reason you are posting this to a privacy community? Were you hoping for something that is Libre/Core boot compatible like some ThinkPads are?

    • trippingonthewire@lemmy.mlOP
      62·
      9 months ago

      I was looking for something that I’m confident doesn’t spy at the hardware level.

      I used Thinkpads as an example because after the early 2010 ones, they got those weird i7 (I believe) processors and we don’t know much of what they do but some speculate they record keystrokes and phone data home.

      What PC can you trust has good hardware in privacy? I don’t want to buy a PC and run Linux, trying my best, and the thing spies at the hardware level.

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
        121·
        9 months ago

        They absolutely do not record keystrokes and phone that home. You’re talking about the Intel Management Engine, which is completely useless to almost everyone, but there’s no evidence that it spies on you. There have been security vulnerabilities found in it that could let someone else compromise your system (notably: only if you’ve provisioned Intel Standard Manageability), but there is practically zero chance that Intel is doing that or even selling that sort of capability.

      • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
        7·
        9 months ago

        Well you can find a list of Libreboot compatible hardware here. I feel like your biggest issue, especially if you are relying on a prebuilt Windows PC, is all the bloatware they come with on top of Windows itself.

      • SheeEttin@programming.devEnglish
        81·
        9 months ago

        How confident do you need to be? I don’t think I’ve seen any convincing evidence of any firmware spying in PC components.

        Well, except the NSA’s Clipper chip, but I don’t think that really ever got implemented.

      • const_void@lemmy.ml
        4·
        9 months ago

        Lenovo uses proprietary, closed source firmware. There’s no way to know what it’s doing.

        • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
          1·
          9 months ago

          So you just have to buy an openWRT router and it would stop it automatically or is this something you would have to be knowledgeable about how it looks in a system log to block it? Also, do you have to have some sort of custom modem as well or just the router being openwrt is enough?