r/freesoftware • u/illegalwatermelon • 5d ago
Discussion What is the most completely free/libre desktop I can realistically build or buy today?
I'm looking for a desktop that is as libre as possible, ideally with 100% free boot firmware and no Intel ME / AMD PSP left at all, rather than just having proprietary firmware disabled or reduced.
I've been looking at the Dell OptiPlex 780 with Canoeboot/Libreboot, since apparently the ME can be completely removed, but I'm wondering if there are any better or more powerful options.
I'm mainly interested in:
- Canoeboot/Libreboot with as few blobs as possible
- No Intel ME or AMD PSP if realistically possible
- Libre graphics/firmware where possible
- Ideally the most powerful hardware available while still keeping it genuinely libre
What would you consider the best "as free as possible" desktop in 2026? Older hardware is completely fine. I'm more interested in firmware freedom than raw performance.
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u/Tricky-Engineer-9755 5d ago
Without care for cost, the Tallos II by Raptor bar none. Everything down to the CPU ISA is entirely free software, that includes boot firmware, EC, microcode, GPU/sound drivers etc. However it is PPC64 so software support is limited. The Power9 CPU architecture itself has no support for the Intel Managment Engine or AMD PSP no equivalent exists. https://www.raptorcs.com/content/BK1SD1/intro.html
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u/PearMyPie 5d ago
If you're able to spend thousands of dollars (the price increased considerably since launch), look into Raptor Computing's systems, such as the Talos II.
They are 64-bit POWER9 (or 8?) computers with fully libre firmware. Debian, Fedora, Gentoo all support the PPC64LE architecture.
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u/Stock-Imagination567 5d ago
POWER9? now that is a processor arch I haven't heard from in a long time. I worked implementing graphic filters (like those in photoshop, pencil, charcoal, etc) for the mac g5 back in ole 1999.
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u/RadVal 1d ago
That you can REALISTICALLY buy?
A 15h series AMD board, like one with an A88X chipset. Literally the last and most post powerful AMD cpu generation before they railed into stuffing PSP onto every CPU. An equivalent intel cpu would be a core 2 duo, and theres no way you'd wanna use that outside of maybe running a low power home server.
Also, Theres a website simply called "15h.org" if you wanna look into it, that gives you info on how to coreboot the boards and other good documentation.
You can go for arm, but not only are they miserable to find and get parts for (One of the biggest issues with open source that people forget, is that obscure hardware might as well be physical closed source), half the software you would want to run on it wouldn't even have a release for arm, let alone guaranteed compatibility. God forbid you run into an error that hasn't been documented by anyone.