I perused the Nexdock website and saw the announcement of the Nexdock XL. It’s basically the same as the Nexdock 360 (or wireless) except it has a 15" screen, the placement for the phone and touchpad are different. The phone would rest above the keyboard and be held in place by magnets.
I have the Nexdock 360 and really enjoy using it. I added a magnetic mount on the back for the times I am cramped for space, don’t have my little phone stand, or am using it in tablet mode; so all in all other than the bigger screen the XL doesn’t add anything. The cultural brainwashing of American consumerism has me feeling tempted to get it still
So this comes with installed proprietary software? I thought it was inert until you plugged in the phone with just a keyboard, mouse, and screen and I/O ports.
I think it is about the webpage/shop itself, the nextdock is kind of inert, it has firmware to control the audio/video/power input/output but I don’t think it can get any information from you.
I was referring to purchasing it elsewhere. Other websites are not as friendly with their privacy policies when using their websites or purchasing from them compared to Purism. Remember, you are the product.
I ordered a NexDock from Purism about 6 months ago. I recently checked in support but there’s still no ETA when it would be able to ship or whatever.
I have my Librems set up with adblockers and a browser set to always run in the “incognito” mode, so that every subsequent session forgets all cookies when I start it up each day.
The Nex website says it ships in 4 days, which is a lot faster than 6+ months. If I buy a second one directly from Nex instead of from Purism, will the hit to my personal data really be so bad? It’s just really tempting to get one in advance of the Purism one, so I have it sooner to play with.
Same could be said of almost any online purchase. Nothing specific about the Nexdock itself screams “hey look at me, I’m a privacy focused individual trying to hide from the government and big tech.”
I don’t see how it makes much difference. There must be relatively minor differences between the specific NexDock model that you ordered through Purism and the NexDock model that you are talking about here.
The core privacy threat is in the computer itself. A lapdock is “just” a keyboard, mouse and display. That is not to say that it is impossible for a compromise to originate in a lapdock.
The other aspect to consider is the wireless.
On the one hand, anything wireless is inherently more suspect when it comes to security and privacy.
On the other hand, will the NexDock even work wirelessly with the Librem 5? (either charging or data)
So, at a minimum, you would want to be able to disable the wireless functionality in the NexDock i.e. disable in ‘software’ presumably using some kind of on-screen display. I would be asking the vendor whether it is possible to turn wireless off.
I received my Nexdock XL last month. It appears very solid and well built. I had a UBPerfect mini before which worked well but it can only charge the phone with 500mA leading to the L5 battery additionally discharged (slower though). The ND XL provides up to 1000mA and after playing with it I can confirm that it did not discharge L5 battery.
Two problems though: when I connected it first it showed weird display settings without allowing to choose the best resolution. After a restart it showed the desired resolution, worked except the touchscreen. The phone though got very hot (flashing red LED) and after a shutdown the cold phone was “dead” - only reflashing would bring it back to life. After reflashing the phone the XL works as intended in convergence mode - except that the touchscreen is not working (it is not recognized in the mobile settings app either).
In a different post with specific gsettings command it was possible to have the peripheral touchscreen functional but I have not found the correct settings.
It is a bit disappointing that the convergence only seems to flawlessly work with a few selected models, thus more or less a limited convergence mode.
It’s been my experience that a NexDock product from their site (although not an XL) is wacky and finicky, but plugging into a little USBC hub/dock along with keyboard/mouse/monitor tends to work like a PC in most cases. Maybe I’m just biased because I had the hub first, but it seemed better.
