Documentation: update/improve distribution listing

- improve descriptions of Purism and ChromeOS hardware
- add entry for Libretrend Librebox
- improve description of Mr Chromebox and John Lewis'
  3rd party ChromeOS firmware offerings

Change-Id: I66bd1a3701091e499d88738a7c06126de66e58ff
Signed-off-by: Matt DeVillier <matt.devillier@gmail.com>
Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/31252
Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org>
Reviewed-by: Patrick Georgi <pgeorgi@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Philipp Deppenwiese <zaolin.daisuki@gmail.com>
This commit is contained in:
Matt DeVillier 2019-02-05 16:39:43 -06:00 committed by Philipp Deppenwiese
parent 3b0eb602b9
commit 0226789dcc
1 changed files with 38 additions and 23 deletions

View File

@ -5,42 +5,57 @@ to build boot firmware for all kinds of purposes. These third-parties can be
broadly separated in two groups: Those shipping coreboot on their hardware,
and those providing after-market firmware to extend the usefulness of devices.
## Shipping coreboot on hardware
## Hardware shipping with coreboot
### Purism
[Purism](https://www.puri.sm) sells laptops with a focus on privacy and
part of that is their push to remove as much unaccounted code (that is,
binary only) from their devices as possible.
[Purism](https://www.puri.sm) sells laptops with a focus on user privacy and
security; part of that effort is to minimize the amount of proprietary and/or
binary code. Their laptops ship with a blob-free OS and coreboot firmware
with a neutralized Intel Management Engine (ME) and SeaBIOS as the payload.
### Chromebooks
### ChromeOS Devices
All Chromebooks (and related devices) that hit the market after 2013 are
using coreboot as their main firmware. And even the Embedded Controller,
a small microcontroller to support various peripherals (like battery
management or the keyboard) is running open source firmware.
All ChromeOS devices (Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, Chromebit, etc) released from
2012 onward use coreboot for their main system firmware. Additionally, starting
with the 2013 Chromebook Pixel, the firmware running on the Embedded Controller
(EC - a small microcontroller which provides functions like battery management,
keyboard support, and sensor interfacing) is open source as well.
### Libretrend
[Libretrend](https://libretrend.com) sells the Librebox, a NUC-like PC which
ships with coreboot firmware.
## After-market firmware
### Libreboot
[Libreboot](https://libreboot.org) is a project that provides ready-made
binaries for platforms where those can be built entirely from source
code. Their copy of the coreboot repository is therefore stripped of
all devices that require binary components to boot.
[Libreboot](https://libreboot.org) is a downstream coreboot distribution that
provides ready-made firmware images for supported devices: those which can be
built entirely from source code. Their copy of the coreboot repository is
therefore stripped of all devices that require binary components to boot.
### Mr. Chromebox
### MrChromebox
[Matt Devo](https://mrchromebox.tech/) provides replacement firmware for
various Chromebooks. Why replace coreboot with coreboot? You might want
to do different things than what the Google engineers prepared for the
mass market, that's why. This firmware is "with training wheels off".
[MrChromebox](https://mrchromebox.tech/) provides upstream coreboot firmware
images for the vast majority of x86-based Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, using
Tianocore as the payload to provide a modern UEFI bootloader. Why replace
coreboot with coreboot? Mr Chromebox's images are built using upstream
coreboot (vs Google's older, static tree/branch), include many features and
fixes not found in the stock firmware, and offer much broader OS compatibility
(i.e., they run Windows as well as Linux). They also offer updated CPU
microcode, as well as firmware updates for the device's embedded controller
(EC). This firmware "takes the training wheels off" your ChromeOS device :)
### John Lewis
[John Lewis](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware) also
provides replacements for Chromebook firmware, for the same reasons
as Mr. Chromebox. It's a somewhat different set of devices, and with
different configurations, so check out both if Chromebooks are what
you're dealing with.
[John Lewis](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware) also provides
replacement firmware for ChromeOS devices, for the express purpose of
running Linux on Chromebooks. John Lewis' firmware supports a much smaller
set of devices, and uses SeaBIOS as the payload to support Legacy BIOS booting.
His firmware images are significantly older, and not actively maintained or
supported, but worth a look if you need Legacy Boot support and is not
available via Mr Chromebox's firmware.