June 28, 2026
Firmware-free and full of feelings
Working around dragons with the Lemote Yeeloong laptop and OpenBSD
A weird old freedom-first laptop is back, and the comments are losing it
TLDR: The article follows a long, quirky attempt to use an unusual old laptop built for software freedom, famous partly because Richard Stallman used one. In the comments, people were split between being creeped out by its iconic image, proudly defending old machines, and arguing over whether the setup troubles should have happened at all.
A blogger’s quest to get OpenBSD running on the ultra-niche Lemote Yeeloong — the famously all-free, no-hidden-software laptop linked with Richard Stallman — should have been a charming retro tech adventure. Instead, the real spectacle was the community reaction, which instantly split into awe, confusion, nostalgia, and full-on meme energy. The loudest response? People are still deeply unnerved by the image of Stallman using this machine. One commenter called it “very cursed” and admitted it has been haunting them for 12 years. Honestly, that’s the kind of internet trauma branding money can’t buy.
Then came the classic nerd drama: if the laptop is so simple, why is anything acting weird at all? One commenter was baffled by the screen troubles and basically said, in expert-speak, this should not be happening. Another jumped in with practical advice, suggesting the author picked the slow, complicated route and could have saved pain by using a lighter web browser setup instead. Translation for normal humans: the comments section immediately turned into a mix of armchair repair shop and “well actually” theater.
But there was also heartfelt retro devotion. One proud fan declared “No computer is obsolete with a BSD,” turning an old netbook into a badge of honor instead of e-waste. And amid all the freedom-computing philosophy, one person asked the most relatable question of all: where do you even find one of these bizarre little laptops on eBay? In the end, the machine is obscure, the history is wild, and the comments are the true main event: half reverence, half roasting, all irresistible.
Key Points
- •The article presents the Lemote Yeeloong as a laptop notable for operating without binary blobs or opaque firmware and for supporting fully libre operating systems.
- •The author chose the Yeeloong partly because it uses a MIPS-family processor and can run OpenBSD, making it useful for exploring both unusual hardware and a different BSD system.
- •The Yeeloong is described as the first 64-bit MIPS laptop covered by the author, with early processor documentation reportedly more available in Chinese than in English.
- •The article traces the processor’s broader background to China’s long-term policy of promoting indigenous technology, especially after concerns about falling behind global advances in the 1980s.
- •It states that China’s 863 Program became a major state R&D initiative, but foreign processor designs still dominated the Chinese market through the 1990s, with ARM and Intel holding strong positions.