Coreboot Support [LWN.net]

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 8, 2025 23:02 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

> Due to this experience with 9Elements, we banned the entire country of Germany for life.

LOL. In Russia we used to say "two lone souls found each other" in these cases ( https://demotivatorium.ru/sstorage/3/2023/06/122103317896... ).

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 8, 2025 23:06 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (1 responses)

Uh... wow. I hope no Canadian consultants ever work for MALIBAL. Don't want our entire country banned!

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 2:24 UTC (Tue) by jkingweb (subscriber, #113039) [Link]

I'm not sure it would be such a bad thing, given the pettiness with which they seem to operate.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 8, 2025 23:55 UTC (Mon) by roc (subscriber, #30627) [Link] (2 responses)

This article is concerning in all sorts of ways!

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 0:43 UTC (Tue) by 奇跡 (subscriber, #178623) [Link] (1 responses)

Yep, I think all parties involved are mildly insane

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 13:17 UTC (Tue) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link]

These guys seem like the ideal team to maintain bcachefs in Devuan.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 3:17 UTC (Tue) by WolfWings (subscriber, #56790) [Link] (3 responses)

...yeah when that one company is so pissed off at MrChromebox and System76 to ban entire countries/states and forever ban allowing any AMD products literally in the middle of Intel's reputation tanking the worst (late 2024) and doubling down as an Intel-only shop? AND a ban on anyone that contributes/supports/etc CoreBoot in the future?

The problem very much sounds like it's them, not CoreBoot.

Especially when the whole 'callout post' basically amounted to "We didn't want to drop $50k to pay someone else to do a whole CoreBoot firmware for us." so all their headaches were entirely self-inflicted from trying to get it done themselves... and when they couldn't they doubled down even further on refusing to just pay someone to do it right but insisted they use the half-finished project parts they brought along.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 10:29 UTC (Tue) by knewt (subscriber, #32124) [Link] (1 responses)

It gets even more ridiculous than that. Here is an excerpt from their T&Cs.....

> Use of Google Products and Services
>
> Users are prohibited from accessing this website using any Google products or services. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
>
> 1. Gmail: Users may not use Gmail to register, login, or otherwise interact with this site.
> 2. Google Chrome: Users may not use the Google Chrome web browser to access this site.
> – Exception: De-Googled forks of Chrome are allowed.
> 3. Google Pixel Phones: Users may not use Google Pixel phones or any other Google-branded hardware to access this site.
> 4. Android: Users may not use the Android operating system in its standard, Google-integrated form.
> – Exception: De-Googled versions of Android.
> 5. Other Google Services: Any other services or products provided by Google, including but not limited to Google Search, Google Drive, Google Meet, and Google Workspace, are also prohibited from accessing this site.
>
> Enforcement: If it is determined that any user has accessed this website using any of the aforementioned Google products or services, we reserve the right to terminate the user’s access to the site immediately without notice.
>
> Use of Apple Products and Services
>
> Users are prohibited from accessing this website using any Apple products or services. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
>
> 1. Apple Mail: Users may not use Apple Mail to register, login, or otherwise interact with this site.
> 2. Safari: Users may not use the Safari web browser to access this site.
> 3. iPhone and Other Apple Hardware: Users may not use iPhones or any other Apple-branded hardware, including iPads and Mac computers, to access this site.
> 4. Other Apple Services: Any other services or products provided by Apple, including but not limited to iCloud, Apple Maps, Apple Music, and Apple Pay, are also prohibited from accessing this site.
>
> Enforcement: If it is determined that any user has accessed this website using any of the aforementioned Apple products or services, we reserve the right to terminate the user’s access to the site immediately without notice.

Also, here's a video from last year discussing the Coreboot situation some more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk_qg-_mFtQ [Brodie Roberston // MALIBAL Goes To War With Coreboot ]

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 10:40 UTC (Tue) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link]

These people must be in the enviable situation of not actually needing customers.

(I'm saying that as a Google Chrome user from Germany with an AMD-based laptop.)

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 10, 2025 16:29 UTC (Wed) by bjackman (subscriber, #109548) [Link]

I also really love the bit where they say "we offered someone $150/hour, they didn't accept that deal, and therefore we banned the country of Poland"

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 5:13 UTC (Tue) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (2 responses)

The only think that concerns me about that article is that people with that level of emotional maturity are actually developing products out there? I think every potential buyer of a Malibal product should read that link and decide whether that is where they want to spend their money.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 8:23 UTC (Tue) by danielthompson (subscriber, #97243) [Link]

Overall that article seems rather attached to the "we've done 80% of the work" rather than "we churned out 80% of the required lines of code... and they don't work".

A friend of mine used to summarize this kind of situation as: "So fixing that will be $100... oh I see, you've already tried to fix it yourself... in that case it will be $200". The quote is usually related to repairing something but I think it can scale up to software development too. It initially sounds petty but when going deeper I think there is a good bit of logic behind it. When doing fixed price work, this kind of pricing reflects that, if someone has already tried and failed, then what is left is probably difficult to fix and that risk must be priced accordingly.

PS I don't live in Florida but I'm going to say that I do because it might be funny to see what happens next.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 9, 2025 15:32 UTC (Tue) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

The MALIBAL people could learn a thing or two about emotional maturity from Matt Mullenweg.

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 10, 2025 16:26 UTC (Wed) by bjackman (subscriber, #109548) [Link]

Wow that is really quite sensational. I think my favourite bit was the beginning where they say "we were incapable of achieving this task ourselves. But we still think people should do it for us for cheap".

Coreboot Support

Posted Sep 18, 2025 7:28 UTC (Thu) by cypherpunks2 (guest, #152408) [Link]

They banned everyone in the state of Colorado:
> System76’s Principal Engineer decided to chime in and make a fool of himself, so we banned the entire state of Colorado for life.

They banned everyone in Germany:
> Due to this experience with 9Elements, we banned the entire country of Germany for life.

They banned everyone in Poland:
> Due to this experience with 3mdeb, we banned the entire country of Poland for life.

They banned all AMD products:
> Who in their right mind would ever employ such a person? Well, apparently, AMD, and that’s why we banned all of their products for life,

They banned everyone in the state of Maryland:
> Due to this experience with Matt DeVillier, we banned the entire state of Maryland for life.

They banned anyone who supports Coreboot:
> anyone who supports the coreboot project after the post date on this article, including contributing code, being a member of their boards, or donating will be banned for life – without exception.

They banned everyone using a Google product:
> Users are prohibited from accessing this website using any Google products or services.

They banned everyone using an Apple product:
> Users are prohibited from accessing this website using any Apple products or services.

Apparently, they talk like this to everyone. On some random Reddit review post:
> So you bought it so you could abuse the return policy? We're going to get rid of the 30 day return policy in your honor and put your name on our site as to why it's no longer available. It's the response a phantom, zombie like you deserves. You don't exist. You're not a person. You are here to simply suck life out of the human. If you weren't dead and empty inside you would feel shame for what you have done.

And someone on Reddit annoyed them, so they banned all of California:
> The products and services offered on www.malibal.com are not available for purchase by residents of the State of California. If you are a resident of California, you are expressly prohibited from buying any products or services from this website.

Oh yeah, and apparently they banned someone for life for reporting a bug on their laptop configuration page. This Matthew Plott guy seems so pleasant.