Frequently Asked Questions

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Shipping worldwide! Minifree ships to USA, Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and everywhere else, shipping globally from Minifree’s lab in the United Kingdom.

Shipping to North America (US/Canada)

Minifree ships internationally. Shipping prices can be found on the shipping page.

Minifree regularly ships to the EU without issue, from its lab in the UK. The couriers handle the paperwork and pay the tax on your behalf, and then they simply contact you to request payment of VAT plus a small filing fee (usually about 20 euros).

More information about importing can be found on the policy page.

What other hardware does Minifree sell?

See, Libreboot compatibility list: https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/.

Minifree’s main products are listed on minifree.org, but you can contact Minifree to ask about other hardware. If you want to buy something else, Minifree is happy to sell whatever is on the list. A custom price will be made for you, and an invoice emailed to you with payment instructions. The hardware will then be sourced, and configured according to your specification.

In principle, anything from coreboot can be added to Libreboot, and sold, so please also check the coreboot list: see https://doc.coreboot.org/mainboard/index.html and https://coreboot.org/status/board-status.html.

Minifree ships with British keyboard layout by default, which is very similar to the US keyboard layout.

You can change the keyboard yourself quite easily, and Minifree can provide you with instructions if you wish.

Minifree could purchaes foreign keyboards for you, but that would mean importing them into the UK, which would only add to your costs. It’s better for you to simply change the keyboard yourself, if you wish, though most people will probably be happy with the UK keyboards.

Is insert OS here compatible?

Any Linux distro or BSD is probably compatible.

Anything else, such as Windows, is unsupported by Minifree. A U-Boot payload is provided, on some of the supported Libreboot machines, and it provides a UEFI implementation.

Minifree charges 20% UK VAT, for UK shipping addresses.

For international (non-UK) shipping addresses: Minifree charges 0% UK VAT (zero-rate VAT), and you pay your own country’s rate of VAT instead; this payment is made directly to the courier, not to Minifree. The courier pays your government on your behalf, and then charges you the amount of tax plus a small filing fee (usually about £10 to £20 or equivalent in your currency).

See: shipping.

How can I install Libreboot updates?

In addition to running Minifree, I (Leah Rowe) am the lead developer and founder of Libreboot. Releases are always well-tested, especially on the hardware that Minifree sells.

When an update is available, you can easily install it with a flashrom command, from your GNU+Linux system. You do not need to take apart your computer, and you do not need a soldering iron. The original vendor firmware blocks writes to the flash on most machines, requiring you to use special external equipment. However:

Libreboot does not, by default, enable flash protection (but they can, if configured to do so). Restrictions put in place by the manufacturer do not exist when you’re running Libreboot.

Minifree provides support, if you get stuck and need help installing updates. Otherwise, check the Libreboot project website.

It’s a reference to Orwell’s 1984 novel. In the world depicted by that novel, “freedom” is a banned word. So, in that world, “Minifree” could never exist.

It’s a very amusing name, though our world is arguably the one envisioned by Huxley, not Orwell.

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