I should expand on my economic argument (that one effectively makes Windows more valuable by buying used Windows laptops) a bit more at some point, though I'm not sure that would convince you. There are other reasons to avoid ThinkPads, such as unclear branding to people who watch what tech you're using ("he knows about computers and he's using a ThinkPad so those must be great! I'll get a ThinkPad at my local Best Buy because that's probably the best laptop to get!"). My current non-mainstream-branded laptop has gotten a number of questions from people about what I run and is a great chance to educate.
In any case, I really should make another blog post to expand more on my thoughts in http://ossguy.com/?p=1446#free_software_laptop . I'm really worried about the ThinkPad trend among free software people as I think it has a lot of adverse side-effects (the above being some of the key ones, but there are others, too).
In any case, I really should make another blog post to expand more on my thoughts in http://ossguy.com/?p=1446#free_software_laptop . I'm really worried about the ThinkPad trend among free software people as I think it has a lot of adverse side-effects (the above being some of the key ones, but there are others, too).
I fail to see how it makes Windows more valuable as Microsoft gets
nothing from the sale of a person selling a machine on Craigslist. It's
not like the purchaser then went and bought a license from Microsoft (which they could do but in the cases where GNU/Linux is being installed this isn't happening.)
I've heard of that branding argument from someone else and I don't believe in it, sorry. I seriously doubt that there's been anyone that's gone and purchased a ThinkPad after seeing me use it that wouldn't have purchased one anyway (that last part is important.)
If what we show people we use is important (and I do agree on that issue) then it's important that we be using the freest stuff possible at the time. That includes what we steer people to. That isn't anything from Purism, so advocating purchasing stuff that is running non-free stuff can't be good. (The selected models of ThinkPads supported by libreboot are exempted from this since they can be freed and don't have the same problems.)
Now, should the machines from Librem actually be freed my tune may very well change. Until or unless that happens, it can't be more important to steer people to computers that have to run proprietary software in order to function such as those from Librem (and may very well never be freed to the point of being eligible for the FSF's RYF program) instead of to machines that are already that way. Because proprietary software is the problem.
I've heard of that branding argument from someone else and I don't believe in it, sorry. I seriously doubt that there's been anyone that's gone and purchased a ThinkPad after seeing me use it that wouldn't have purchased one anyway (that last part is important.)
If what we show people we use is important (and I do agree on that issue) then it's important that we be using the freest stuff possible at the time. That includes what we steer people to. That isn't anything from Purism, so advocating purchasing stuff that is running non-free stuff can't be good. (The selected models of ThinkPads supported by libreboot are exempted from this since they can be freed and don't have the same problems.)
Now, should the machines from Librem actually be freed my tune may very well change. Until or unless that happens, it can't be more important to steer people to computers that have to run proprietary software in order to function such as those from Librem (and may very well never be freed to the point of being eligible for the FSF's RYF program) instead of to machines that are already that way. Because proprietary software is the problem.