How to buy a Dell laptop with the Intel ME disabled from the factory, as governm...
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How to buy a Dell laptop with the Intel ME disabled from the factory, as government agencies buy them.
Visit the Dell page for the Dell Rugged 14 5414, a semi-rugged version of one of the regular models in the Dell Latitude line. Note there's an upcharge for Windows 7 and a major discount for Ubuntu Linux.
/u/zachsandberg posted about this not long after I had noticed it and before I got around to making a new thread about it.
Holy shit. Even decently pimped out, it’s over $4,500USD. And it would have less than half the performance envelope of a similarly-priced Eurocom.
Sure, it’s rugged and all, but a bulky case in an era of no fragile moving parts doesn’t (IMHO) warrant a price that’s twice that of comparable hardware. Hell, even the 1TB M.2 SSD that they are quoting ($1,362USD) is more than twice that of a top-shelf 1Tb M.2 Samsung 960 Pro. Unless they’ve done some pretty extraordinary things to that stick of chewing gum, it isn’t worth the grand-plus that they’re asking for.
Do you normally buy your RAM and your SSDs from your laptop vendor?
Unless they’ve done some pretty extraordinary things to that stick of chewing gum, it isn’t worth the grand-plus that they’re asking for.
It is when the taxpayer is picking up the bill. And Dell knows that.
They provide the warranty and support, taking the risk of that hardware failing within its life
Not defending it, but companies have to make money as well
Not sure what boxes you checked, but I only hit $2,600 or so, plus whatever I can get an SSD and RAM for.
$3k isn't terrible if you're buying new laptops. Still, a used ThinkPad is 1/10th the price...
Can order it without a webcam too, that's kinda cool.
There's an option for a built-in shutter, which is nice if you want the versatility.
That's really cool! I've been looking for something like this for quite some time. But it still has a mic installed, which I don't like.
I got one. I'll test the status of the ME using ME cleaner and Intel's provided kernel module. We'll see how it goes. ETA 12 days.
Nice. I'd be interested in hearing about what you think of it running Linux in general -- assuming you bought it to run Linux.
How you know it isn't a scam
This has been fixed by Dell.
What does "fixed" mean in this context?
Neat but a bit pricey
You pay for what you get, even if what you get is less than what you would have gotten if you had paid less in the first place.
Capitalism, FTW!!
Why doesn't "no out of band systems management" do the same thing?
Not paying the extra for vPro means no access to the management features, but all of the management functionality is still there and can be exploited.
Wow. Pretty cool!
Why comments about Purism and system76 were removed?
Ubuntu Linux 14.04 SP1
tl;dr what is Intel ME?
It's part of Intel AMT:
Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) is a set of firmware-resident hardware capabilities that enable network-management applications to perform sophisticated remote functions, even when the target device is powered off or has a corrupted operating system (OS). […]
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-active-management-technology-downloads
does this piss anyone else off that this exists?
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