Free 500 USD laptop proposal

[Florian Weimer]

* Paul van der Vlis:

> Hello Paul Hänsch and others,
>
> Op 23-11-14 om 23:39 schreef Paul Hänsch:
>> Paul van der Vlis <paul at vandervlis.nl>, Sun 2014-11-23 23:06:
>>> https://bryanquigley.com/uncategorized/would-you-crowdfund-a-500-ubunt
>>> u-open-to-the-core-laptop
>> 
>> I don't get this point:
>> 
>> ""quote --
>> - 128 GB SSD (this would be the one component that might have to be 
>> proprietary as I’m not aware of another option)
>> -- ""
>> 
>> Don't notebook SSDs appear as standerdised SATA disks these days? I've 
>> never experienced any trouble with this class of device. Could imagine 
>> that the internal ROM firmware is proprietary, but this should be the 
>> case for a lot of the components (even when the loadable part of the 
>> firmware is free).
>
> A SSD has it's own processor and firmware, and that's always non-free so
> far I know.

The CPU has its own firmware, too.  It even needs updates sometimes.
Why doesn't it matter there?

(I got an OS-less laptop some time ago for much less than $500, but I
don't know if it is CoreBoot-capable.  Obviously, there is also tons
of firmware running on other chips besides the main CPU.)