Agreed that the POWER series are at (or perhaps above) most people's
   price point. Its a shame non-SOC ARM PCs aren't common to avoid the
   easily hidden backdoors afforded by integrated processors.
   Warrant Canary creator

   On Oct 8, 2017 7:22 PM, "grarpamp" <[1]grarpamp@gmail.com> wrote:

     On Sun, Oct 8, 2017 at 3:11 PM, Steven Schear
     <[2]schear.steve@gmail.com> wrote:
     > Why not switch to much more open CPUs (e.g. POWER8/9) which are
     already
     > comparable to much of Intel's higher end server chips.
     Power8 is an intermediate generation now on phaseout, where
     Power9 seems more part of a fuller openpower initiative that might
     stand up to Intel / AMD. The entire early 9 production output was
     being vacuumed up by military / big data / compute, and retail is
     taking a while to evolve. It's good stuff however power is still an
     expensive platform for non enterprise end users to just buy
     casually, and to pay electric on, but the openness might win.
     Power9 scaleout SO is rather less than scaleup SU versions.
     If you want me to switch and get in the game early, perhaps
     with review coinmining and shell ftw, you know what to do... ;)
     BTC:1CQYSaF8Cqx5ZSgaKG9LE8UrEJAkWqFpLa
     [3]https://wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPOWER_Foundation
     [4]https://wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER9
     [5]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12351319
     [6]https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/04/06/inside-future-google
     -rackspace-power9-system/
     [7]https://blog.rackspace.com/the-latest-zaius-barreleye-g2-ope
     n-compute-openpower-server
     [8]https://www.nextplatform.com/2017/09/19/power9-rollout-begin
     s-summit-sierra/
     [9]https://www.enterprisetech.com/2014/07/15/open-sourced-bios-
     helps-power8-compete-x86/
     [10]http://www.theplatform.net/2015/03/23/inside-the-rackspace-
     openpower-megaserver/
     [11]https://www.servethehome.com/?s=openpower
     [12]https://www.anandtech.com/SearchResults?q=openpower
     [13]http://www.storagereview.com/search/node/openpower
     [14]https://hn.algolia.com/?query=power9&sort=byDate&prefix&page
     =0&dateRange=all&type=story
     [15]https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/
     [16]https://raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html
     [17]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14956257
     [18]http://tyan.com/campaign/OpenPOWER/
     [19]https://github.com/open-power
     [20]https://github.com/openbmc
     [21]https://wiki.freebsd.org/POWER8
     [22]https://www.freebsdnews.com/2015/03/04/freebsd-power8-its-al
     ive-2/
     [23]https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=279189
     [24]https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2015-01-2015-03.h
     tml#FreeBSD-on-POWER8
     [25]https://reviews.freebsd.org/search/query/oIdoWWKTe71p/
     [26]https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.
     8-More-POWER9
     [27]https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Power-Ch
     anges-Linux-4.12
     [28]https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Raptor-T
     alos-2-Teaser
     [29]https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Talos-2-
     POWER9-Pre-Order
     [30]https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Talos-2-
     FSF-RYF-Possible
     [31]http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-fr
     eedom
     [32]https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/only-a-short-time-left-
     to-pre-order-the-talos-ii-pre-orders-end-september-15th
     Minimum to boot and scale cost users roughly $3300 incl 2x cpu, ps,
     32gb.

References

   1. mailto:grarpamp@gmail.com
   2. mailto:schear.steve@gmail.com
   3. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPOWER_Foundation
   4. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER9
   5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12351319
   6. https://www.nextplatform.com/2016/04/06/inside-future-google-rackspace-power9-system/
   7. https://blog.rackspace.com/the-latest-zaius-barreleye-g2-open-compute-openpower-server
   8. https://www.nextplatform.com/2017/09/19/power9-rollout-begins-summit-sierra/
   9. https://www.enterprisetech.com/2014/07/15/open-sourced-bios-helps-power8-compete-x86/
  10. http://www.theplatform.net/2015/03/23/inside-the-rackspace-openpower-megaserver/
  11. https://www.servethehome.com/?s=openpower
  12. https://www.anandtech.com/SearchResults?q=openpower
  13. http://www.storagereview.com/search/node/openpower
  14. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=power9&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story
  15. https://raptorcs.com/TALOSII/
  16. https://raptorcs.com/content/base/faq.html
  17. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14956257
  18. http://tyan.com/campaign/OpenPOWER/
  19. https://github.com/open-power
  20. https://github.com/openbmc
  21. https://wiki.freebsd.org/POWER8
  22. https://www.freebsdnews.com/2015/03/04/freebsd-power8-its-alive-2/
  23. https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=279189
  24. https://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2015-01-2015-03.html#FreeBSD-on-POWER8
  25. https://reviews.freebsd.org/search/query/oIdoWWKTe71p/
  26. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.8-More-POWER9
  27. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Power-Changes-Linux-4.12
  28. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Raptor-Talos-2-Teaser
  29. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Talos-2-POWER9-Pre-Order
  30. https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Talos-2-FSF-RYF-Possible
  31. http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom
  32. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/only-a-short-time-left-to-pre-order-the-talos-ii-pre-orders-end-september-15th