Do you still run Trisquel, even if...
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Do you still run Trisquel, even if your hardware is unsupported without free software? Or do you choose another distribution?
As someone who has many computers (and computer hardware) laying around, a lot of my devices require proprietary software for proper functioning. However, I prefer the default look, feel, and setup of Trisquel so I keep it installed on all of my machines. Some are fully liberated (like the X200), some work almost flawlessly with just the need of a compatible wifi adapter, and some need both proprietary GPU and network card drivers to function properly.
I'm curious if anyone else decides to use Trisquel this way, or if they just opt for a less-libre solution since they're using proprietary software anyways. I prefer to keep my devices as free as possible, while also still being functional.
The reason why I use trisquel is to only use free software with ease. I will be getting an Atheros wifi dongle to plug into my machine to be able to use wifi with trisquel, but at the moment right now, I am still using my phone with usb tethering.
This is possible for older modern hardware where the GPU is still compatible and CPU microcode updates are not a concern. However for modern hardware the ISO will not even load because it cannot load the GPU.
I wanted to run a 100% free distribution but had an HP Omnibook 7 ai, made in 2025 supposedly top of the line. Long story short, a bios bug made it fail when I rebooted too often. So I made the dive and bought a librebooted X200 thinkpad, canoebooted it and ran Parabola on it. It runs just as fine as my modern laptop for all normal use cases. You do not need modern hardware.
Older thinkpads are just better laptops, they have better keyboards, better modularity, little to no backdoors once librebooted. Just take the dive modern hardware is not worth it, its a meme.
I agree that the older Thinkpads are better laptops. I have a newer Lenovo Legion laptop with nVidia GTX 1650 that is running Trisquel, just with proprietary graphics drivers. Installation was a little tricky requiring TTY boot and some Grub modifications to get display output to function correctly.
I feel like Trisquel is still the best option. If GPU drivers ever become liberated and functional then the proprietary code can be removed or OS reinstalled. Same as to if there's ever a more liberated BIOS, it can be upgraded if/when that happens.
I'd describe the X200 as a laptop that can run libre or relatively libre boot firmware and a libre OS, not as fully libre hardware, not as open silicon, and not as an FLOSS computer design.
The X200 is not "fully liberated". You can replace the stock BIOS with a libre BIOS/UEFI and run a libre operating system, but that only frees part of the boot and software stack, not the whole machine. The EC firmware remains proprietary and still depends on Lenovo's original firmware path rather than on a libre EC replacement. The CPU depends on proprietary microcode, and there are other firmware-bearing components in the system, including the optical drive in the dock and various motherboard devices, that are not liberated just because the main boot firmware was replaced.
The system also speaks x86, and x86 is not generally considered as a fully open ISA in the way open ISAs are. The existence of open-source emulators or "unofficial documentation" around x86 does not make the ISA itself open.
Unfortunately we do not live in a libre hardware world. We live in a market that rewards cheapness, secrecy, and convenience, then teaches users to call that normal. The real scandal, IMO, isn't that one two-decade-old ThinkPad falls short. It is that an old ThinkPad with a replaced BIOS still counts as unusually free. The other scandal is that many really open projects, litke the openPOWER (Raptor CS, TALOS II, Blackbird) project failed because too few people bought in. I call it a failure because there has been no follow-up to their 2017 POWER9 hardware, while today's x86 machines, and even x86 machines from that time, offer substantially (by many factors) better energy efficiency and performance. Both matter if you want to scale a product, and if you cannot scale it, few people will be able to use it, because prices will remain prohibitively high or engineers who develop real libre computer hardware will choose to spend their time on something else because there is no reward of doing so.
/thum
Very well written, showing the whole dilemma in which all Free Software enthusiasts live with their hardware from a person who tried to help freedom-loving people as best he could with his experience and his company. Thank you very much for that!
Christoph