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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
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Documentation/distributions.md
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@ -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, broadly separated in two groups: Those shipping coreboot on their hardware,
and those providing after-market firmware to extend the usefulness of devices. and those providing after-market firmware to extend the usefulness of devices.
## Shipping coreboot on hardware
## Hardware shipping with coreboot
### Purism ### Purism
[Purism](https://www.puri.sm) sells laptops with a focus on privacy and [Purism](https://www.puri.sm) sells laptops with a focus on user privacy and
part of that is their push to remove as much unaccounted code (that is, security; part of that effort is to minimize the amount of proprietary and/or
binary only) from their devices as possible. 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 All ChromeOS devices (Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, Chromebit, etc) released from
using coreboot as their main firmware. And even the Embedded Controller, 2012 onward use coreboot for their main system firmware. Additionally, starting
a small microcontroller to support various peripherals (like battery with the 2013 Chromebook Pixel, the firmware running on the Embedded Controller
management or the keyboard) is running open source firmware. (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 ## After-market firmware
### Libreboot ### Libreboot
[Libreboot](https://libreboot.org) is a project that provides ready-made [Libreboot](https://libreboot.org) is a downstream coreboot distribution that
binaries for platforms where those can be built entirely from source provides ready-made firmware images for supported devices: those which can be
code. Their copy of the coreboot repository is therefore stripped of built entirely from source code. Their copy of the coreboot repository is
all devices that require binary components to boot. therefore stripped of all devices that require binary components to boot.
### Mr. Chromebox ### MrChromebox
[Matt Devo](https://mrchromebox.tech/) provides replacement firmware for [MrChromebox](https://mrchromebox.tech/) provides upstream coreboot firmware
various Chromebooks. Why replace coreboot with coreboot? You might want images for the vast majority of x86-based Chromebooks and Chromeboxes, using
to do different things than what the Google engineers prepared for the Tianocore as the payload to provide a modern UEFI bootloader. Why replace
mass market, that's why. This firmware is "with training wheels off". 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
[John Lewis](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware) also [John Lewis](https://johnlewis.ie/custom-chromebook-firmware) also provides
provides replacements for Chromebook firmware, for the same reasons replacement firmware for ChromeOS devices, for the express purpose of
as Mr. Chromebox. It's a somewhat different set of devices, and with running Linux on Chromebooks. John Lewis' firmware supports a much smaller
different configurations, so check out both if Chromebooks are what set of devices, and uses SeaBIOS as the payload to support Legacy BIOS booting.
you're dealing with. 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.