frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Porting the ThinkPad X61 to Coreboot

https://blog.aheymans.xyz/post/thinkpad_x61/
22•walterbell•2h ago

Comments

userbinator•51m ago
Sure, USA citizens are not allowed to reverse engineer

...yes we are? After all, that's how the whole IBM PC-compatible industry started.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies#Cloning_t...

AFAIK the later Thinkpads including this one uses a Phoenix BIOS, so it's amusing to see the circularity of how things turned out; and continuing on that path, Phoenix sold its BIOS business to Lenovo a little earlier this year.

Krutonium•3m ago
As with many things, this is a case of "it depends" - How you do it and for what reason, primarily. If you're reverse engineering code that's part of a DRM scheme for example, that's explicitly not allowed.

Coreboot is debatable for this, it's fine in the sense that nobody is going to come after you for it, but legally you're not doing a clean room implementation, you're looking at the original and creating a new functional replacement, which is fundamentally different to the Phoenix BIOS clone, and not in a good way.

But as I said, nobody is going to come after you for it so...

zeafoamrun•44m ago
Kudos for getting this done!

Sad that free BIOSes are so far behind modern hardware, but this is very necessary work.

d3Xt3r•40m ago
This is really, really cool. I wonder, by extension, if it's feasible to reverse engineer all the various low-level firmware blobs too and have it hosted on LVFS so users can update it via fwupd (not sure if LVFS would be willing to host such firmware though).

But I would really like to see this trend take off, so we can take back control over smart devices and see more FOSS firmware pushed out to various devices (OpenWRT etc).

taffydavid•20m ago
I have an x61 myself, bought it last year to add to my Thinkpad collection. I haven't done much besides put in some real to verify it actually works. And suggestions on an OS?
userbinator•4m ago
Windows 98SE.

Port any drivers you need with AI.

Only half-serious...

Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/06/08/apple-reveals-new-ai-architecture/
521•unclefuzzy•11h ago•400 comments

Old'aVista – The most powerful guide to the old Internet

https://oldavista.com/
65•abnercoimbre•14h ago•12 comments

Siri AI

https://www.apple.com/apple-intelligence/
525•0xedb•12h ago•470 comments

xAI is looking more like a datacentre REIT than a frontier lab

https://martinalderson.com/posts/xais-new-rental-business/
516•martinald•15h ago•400 comments

Show HN: Performative-UI – A react component library of design tropes

https://vorpus.github.io/performativeUI/
902•lizhang•16h ago•165 comments

EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

https://www.foodwatch.org/en/eu-banned-pesticides-found-in-rice-tea-and-spices
343•john-titor•14h ago•121 comments

MiMo-v2.5-Pro-UltraSpeed: 1T model with 1000 tokens per second

https://mimo.xiaomi.com/blog/mimo-tilert-1000tps
544•gainsurier•15h ago•393 comments

Porting the ThinkPad X61 to Coreboot

https://blog.aheymans.xyz/post/thinkpad_x61/
23•walterbell•2h ago•6 comments

Apple Core AI Framework

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coreai/
260•hmokiguess•12h ago•68 comments

Looking Forward to Postgres 19: Query Hints

https://www.pgedge.com/blog/looking-forward-to-postgres-19-query-hints
124•jjgreen•3d ago•16 comments

Passing DBs through continuations

https://remy.wang/blog/cps.html
41•remywang•2d ago•4 comments

Show HN: Gitdot – a better GitHub. Open-source, written in Rust

https://gitdot.io/
214•baepaul•14h ago•175 comments

GoGoGrandparent (YC S16) is hiring Back end Engineers

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/gogograndparent/jobs/2vbzAw8-backend-engineer
1•davidchl•3h ago

Job: Head of Stonehenge

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/our-people/careers-with-us/job-search/default-job-page/...
133•mooreds•3h ago•94 comments

How much do amd64 microarchitecture levels help in Go?

https://lemire.me/blog/2026/06/06/how-much-do-amd64-microarchitecture-levels-help-in-go/
41•zdw•1d ago•16 comments

Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI?

247•aryamaan•12h ago•415 comments

FrontierCode

https://cognition.ai/blog/frontier-code
155•streamer45•10h ago•30 comments

Why are cells small?

https://burrito.bio/essays/what-limits-a-cells-size
133•mailyk•11h ago•63 comments

Surveillance is not safety: A statement on the UK's latest threat to privacy [pdf]

https://signal.org/blog/pdfs/2026-06-08-uk-surveillance-is-not-safety.pdf
517•g0xA52A2A•11h ago•194 comments

Ask HN: Why hasn't there been a real competitor to Ticketmaster yet?

133•mdni007•13h ago•115 comments

I'm building a parallel internet, and it's called The Thinnernet

https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/06/im-building-parallel-internet-and-its.html
66•initramfs•11h ago•66 comments

AI is slowing down

https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-slowing-down/
496•crescit_eundo•15h ago•517 comments

Launch HN: Intuned (YC S22) – Build and run reliable browser automations as code

https://intunedhq.com
106•fkilaiwi•17h ago•46 comments

Anti-social: It's fads, not friends, which now dominate social media feeds

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20260520-how-social-media-ceased-to-be-social
618•1vuio0pswjnm7•18h ago•430 comments

Apple bets cheaper AI will woo small developers

https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/apple-bets-cheaper-ai-will-woo-small-developers/
46•jbernardo95•9h ago•21 comments

Confidential submission of draft S-1 to the SEC

https://openai.com/index/openai-submits-confidential-s-1/
333•hackerBanana•9h ago•262 comments

CRDTs merge concurrent edits. Why not concurrent creation?

https://loro.dev/blog/mergeable-containers
8•czx111331•2h ago•1 comments

OCaml Onboarding: Introduction to the Dune build system

https://ocamlpro.com/blog/2025_07_29_ocaml_onboarding_introduction_to_dune/
154•andrewstetsenko•4d ago•23 comments

Federal judge blocks H1B visa $100K fee

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2026/06/08/federal-judge-blocks-h1-b-visa-100k-fee/
140•naturalmovement•6h ago•253 comments

Games Between Programs: The Ruliology of Competition

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/06/games-between-programs-the-ruliology-of-competition/
25•andromaton•3d ago•2 comments