Mark Dain So what companies can I trust? I've effectively put Lenovo on the blacklist now. Shame as I was thinking of getting a ThinkPad.

Martijn Apple seems to really try and be trustworthy, so there is them. Otherwise I guess you are stuck with completely open things? There aren't that many open motherboards or boot systems though...

Mark Dain This whole fiasco makes me regret not backing the Novena laptop. It's as close as we can get until 3D printing can make CPUs and we can print trustworthy hardware.