The Free Software Foundation has introduced a new device that has received the "Respect Your Freedom" certification, which confirms the device's compliance with user privacy and freedom requirements, allowing it to use a special logo in related product materials, emphasizing the user's full control over the device. The certification has been issued to the VPN router Gigabit Mini VPN Router (TPE-R1400), distributed by ThinkPenguin.
The TPE-R1400 router is built on the Rockchip RK3328 SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU (1.4GHz), comes with 1GB of RAM, features two gigabit Ethernet ports (1 WAN and 1 LAN), a USB 2.0 port, and a Micro-SD slot (the internals are fully similar to the NanoPi R2S device, which is supplied with FriendlyWrt/OpenWrt). The device lacks Wi-Fi; it is recommended to use the TPE-R1400 in conjunction with a wireless router TPE-R1300 from the same manufacturer, which was previously certified by the Free Software Foundation.
The router comes with the U-Boot bootloader and firmware based on the entirely free distribution libreCMC, which is a fork of OpenWRT supplied with the Linux-libre kernel and stripped of binary drivers, firmwares, and applications distributed under non-free licenses. The distribution provides built-in tools for establishing operations in a local network through VPN and supports connections to VPNs based on OpenVPN and WireGuard, as well as connections through VPN providers like Mullvad, AirVPN, OVPN, njalla, PureVPN, HideMyAss, IPredator, and NordVPN.
To obtain certification from the Free Software Foundation, a product must meet the following requirements:
- provision of free drivers and firmware;
- all software supplied with the device must be free;
- absence of DRM restrictions;
- the ability for complete control over the device's operation;
- support for firmware replacement;
- support for running fully free GNU/Linux distributions;
- use of unrestricted patent-free formats and software components;
- availability of free documentation.
Previously certified devices include:
- Laptops TET-X200, TET-X200T, TET-X200s, TET-T400, TET-T400s, and TET-T500 (refurbished versions of Lenovo ThinkPad X200, T400, and T500), Vikings X200, Gluglug X60 (Lenovo ThinkPad X60), Libreboot X200 (Lenovo ThinkPad X200), Taurinus X200 (Lenovo ThinkPad X200), Libreboot T400 (Lenovo ThinkPad T400);
- PCs Vikings D8 Workstation;
- Wireless routers ThinkPenguin, ThinkPenguin TPE-NWIFIROUTER, TPE-R1100, ThinkPenguin TPE-R1300, and Wireless-N Mini Router v2 (TPE-R1200);
- 3D printers LulzBot AO-101 and LulzBot TAZ 6;
- Wireless USB adapters Tehnoetic TET-N150, TET-N150HGA, TET-N300, TET-N300HGA, TET-N300DB, TET-N450DB, Penguin PE-G54USB2, Penguin TPE-N300PCIED2, TPE-NHMPCIED2, TPE-NMPCIE, Libiquity Wi-Fri;
- Motherboards TET-D16 (ASUS KGPE-D16 with Coreboot firmware), Vikings D16, Vikings D8 (ASUS KCMA-D8), Talos II and Talos II Lite based on POWER9 processors;
- eSATA / SATA controller with PCIe interface (6Gbps);
- Vikings sound cards (USB), Penguin TPE-USBSOUND, and TPE-PCIESNDCRD;
- Docking stations TET-X200DOCK and TET-T400DOCK for X200, T400, and T500 laptop series;
- Bluetooth adapter TET-BT4 USB;
- Zerocat Chipflasher programmer;
- Minifree Libreboot X200 tablet;
- Gigabit Ethernet PCIe adapters (TPE-1000MPCIE, dual-port), PCI Gigabit Ethernet (TPE-1000MPCI), Penguin 10/100 USB Ethernet v1 (TPE-100NET1), and Penguin 10/100 USB v2 (TPE-100NET2);
- Penguin TPE-USBMIC microphone with USB interface, adapter TPE-USBPARAL.
Source: opennet.ru
