Coreboot
Hacker ApprovedOpen firmware in Computers
Open-source replacement for proprietary BIOS firmware on supported boards, giving users control over what runs at boot. Caveat: only a small subset of boards is supported.
Open-source replacement for proprietary BIOS firmware on supported boards, giving users control over what runs at boot. Caveat: only a small subset of boards is supported.
37 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 31
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 31 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open source instead of blobs
“Framework assembled there, too, but use open source coreboot firmware. Doesn't get any better than that.”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Lenovo's New ThinkPads Score 10/10 for Repairability” “Windows running on Core Boot is a better place to be than custom Linux running on opaque blob”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign-Made Consumer Routers” “Coreboot is amazing, more machines should have open firmware”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “StarFighter 16-Inch” Faster, stronger performance
“the Dasharo performance led to effectively the same performance as the default proprietary BIOS performance overall”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Open-Source Success Achieved: Running AMD OpenSIL and Coreboot on EPYC” “It's astonishing how much faster the system is under the coreboot”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Running AMD OpenSIL and Coreboot on the First Available Ryzen AM5 Motherboard” “coreboot with a tuned config cuts that to under 2 seconds”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “I Ported Coreboot to the ThinkPad X270” Removes vendor lock-ins and features
“it has less functionality than the OEM, so you use it to _remove_ features”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “I Ported Coreboot to the ThinkPad X270” “in my other old intel CPUs that do have ME I disable it and coreboot”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “The Vietnam government has banned rooted phones from using any banking app” “Mostly, it got rid of Lenovo's stupid WiFi whitelist.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “I Ported Coreboot to the ThinkPad X270” Good on Chromebooks and Starlabs
“Some older Arm Chromebooks have mainline Linux support and also run coreboot”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “X210Ai is a new motherboard to upgrade ThinkPad X201/200” “Bravo! This (and coreboot) are why I own a Starbook from Starlabs.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Framework Computer Now Sponsoring LVFS / Fwupd Development”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Few supported boards
“They literally do not care anymore; focus is not on corebooting all the boards, but on serving some sort of commercial "customer".”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “ReBarUEFI: Resizable BAR for almost any UEFI system” “the biggest one being that only a rather small subset of mobos are actually supported”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “ReBarUEFI: Resizable BAR for almost any UEFI system” Loses functionality versus OEM
“it has less functionality than the OEM, so you use it to _remove_ features”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “I Ported Coreboot to the ThinkPad X270” “you'll likely lose a bunch of functionality (that's been my experience)”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “I Ported Coreboot to the ThinkPad X270” Missing BIOS password and UI
“coreboot doesn't have BIOS password feature”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Runit Linux: Complete Guide to Unix Init Scheme with Service Supervision” “it didn't have any configuration UI at all”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “ReBarUEFI: Resizable BAR for almost any UEFI system” Closed blobs remain in places
“Coreboot doesn't really work well in this situation: multiple vendors, different update lifecycles and possibly closed-source binaries.”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “RISC-V Server Platform Spec Ratified” “Neither is Coreboot which has blobs for many other things.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Previewing GPT‑5.6 Sol: a next-generation model”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CorebootThis page | 31 | 6 | 84% | 10 | — | Approved |
| MrChromebox firmware | 13 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
33 of the 40 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the cut-down minimal boot manager they provide has yet to convince me to even try switching”
“Not one single mention of coreboot in this thread?”
“I would use Coreboot instead”
“in my experience the response to patches is relatively quick”
“They literally do not care anymore; focus is not on corebooting all the boards, but on serving some sort of commercial "customer".”
“it didn't have any configuration UI at all”
“Coreboot in desktops is perhaps in the best shape it has been in more than a decade”
“the biggest one being that only a rather small subset of mobos are actually supported”
“It's astonishing how much faster the system is under the coreboot”
“that can give you a good overall idea of how backing up and reprogramming an SPI memory works”
“Neither is Coreboot which has blobs for many other things.”
“the Dasharo performance led to effectively the same performance as the default proprietary BIOS performance overall”
“Coreboot doesn't really work well in this situation: multiple vendors, different update lifecycles and possibly closed-source binaries.”
“Coreboot is amazing, more machines should have open firmware”
“Having a disjoint but strict, timely, disinterested connection with support forums is great.”
“Windows running on Core Boot is a better place to be than custom Linux running on opaque blob”
“U-boot and coreboot are free”
“Framework assembled there, too, but use open source coreboot firmware. Doesn't get any better than that.”
“Mostly, it got rid of Lenovo's stupid WiFi whitelist.”
“I don't really feel like I've lost any functionality, personally?”
“coreboot with a tuned config cuts that to under 2 seconds”
“it has less functionality than the OEM, so you use it to _remove_ features”
“you'll likely lose a bunch of functionality (that's been my experience)”
“Unless you're paranoid about an OEM backdoor, I think this is cool but not worth the effort.”
“With coreboot you can just... fix it properly.”
“I love coreboot, openbmc, etc. as much as the next guy”
“in my other old intel CPUs that do have ME I disable it and coreboot”
“I'm all Linux, OpenWrt, Coreboot, GrapheneOS, etc.”
“coreboot becomes all but a hard requirement”
“Some older Arm Chromebooks have mainline Linux support and also run coreboot”
“Bravo! This (and coreboot) are why I own a Starbook from Starlabs.”
“coreboot doesn't have BIOS password feature”
“Coreboot is the only option, but it has a hard requirement on Ada”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.