Got a Linux compatible laptop

[Jonathan <j.e.drews@worldnet.att.net>]

Bryan and Doc:

 Thanks for your help. I ordered a nice Linux compatible laptop from
here:
http://www.powernotebooks.com/specs/PowerPro/c3-16.php

I also discovered that IBM Thinkpads use TCPA. As Richard Stallman calls
it "The Treacherous Computing" initiative. So for that reason  decided
against the ThinkPads.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html


Also see
'Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
EXCERPT:
1. What is TC - this `trusted computing' business? 

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is an alliance of Microsoft, Intel,
IBM, HP and AMD which promotes a standard for a `more secure' PC. Their
definition of `security' is controversial; machines built according to
their specification will be more trustworthy from the point of view of
software vendors and the content industry, but will be less trustworthy
from the point of view of their owners. In effect, the TCG specification
will transfer the ultimate control of your PC from you to whoever wrote
the software it happens to be running. (Yes, even more so than at
present.) 

The TCG project is known by a number of names. `Trusted computing' was
the original one, and is still used by IBM, while Microsoft calls it
`trustworthy computing' and the Free Software Foundation calls it
`treacherous computing'. Hereafter I'll just call it TC, which you can
pronounce according to taste. Other names you may see include TCPA
(TCG's name before it incorporated), Palladium (the old Microsoft name
for the version due to ship in 2004) and NGSCB (the new Microsoft name).
Intel has just started calling it `safer computing'. Many observers
believe that this confusion is deliberate - the promoters want to
deflect attention from what TC actually does.


2. What does TC do, in ordinary English? 

TC provides a computing platform on which you can't tamper with the
application software, and where these applications can communicate
securely with their authors and with each other. The original motivation
was digital rights management (DRM): Disney will be able to sell you
DVDs that will decrypt and run on a TC platform, but which you won't be
able to copy. The music industry will be able to sell you music
downloads that you won't be able to swap. They will be able to sell you
CDs that you'll only be able to play three times, or only on your
birthday. All sorts of new marketing.....




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