Is Librem 15 for me?

[vtntimo]

Hi,

I am looking for a long-overdue replacement for my Macbook Pro laptop, and have been looking at Librem 15 for a while now. I am looking for a Linux-based laptop that would be a great companion for the years to come. I work professionally as a developer and do a lot of (mostly) web-based application coding, web browsing, some minor-ish graphic design and generic communication on my laptop. What really caught my eye in Librem 15 was the sleek-looking design, security-features, kill switches and that it at least gives a picture of being a great workhorse laptop. If you have the Librem 15 and would like to share some answers to my questions below, it would be much appreciated!

1. Is Librem and PureOS suitable for a novice Linux user? I have used Linux every now and then (mostly Ubuntu on and off during the last 10-15 years or so). I also know some basic command line and seem to get by just fine by Googling or looking at man pages to find what I need. What I don’t know so much about is the architectural design of Linux and what happens under the hood, but am learning it bit by bit. I am also a programmer with some knowledge in languages like C and C++, but really just scratching the surface compared to my JavaScript-abilities. Do you think I could get by with PureOS and Librem during my novice-phase? What I find problematic sometimes is building software on my Ubuntu, and have a vague knowledge of the autoconf package building process. Usually if I run into problems not caused by missing dependencies, Google is my only option. Do I have enough Linux-ability to use PureOS and/or Librem, or should I first learn more Linux and then come back?

2. Does the Librem and PureOS fit “heavy duty”-use as my main workstation? Is it stable enough, and is the hardware durable enough? I can’t lose days upon days of work time on debugging and fixing my OS. I am okay with having to do some extra configuring (compared to say, MacOS) on initial installation and getting-used-to-it -phase, but once I get rolling I want to keep on rolling. Am I looking at the right laptop?

3. Does the Librem 15 fit a touchpad-lover? I am a die hard fan of the touchpad, and use it a lot, including when I do graphic design work. What I appreciate in Macbook+MacOS (god it’s painful to configure the touchpad on Macbook+Ubuntu…) is the perfect feeling of the touchpad and it’s responsiveness. How does the Librem 15 touchpad compare? It surely looks and sounds good, but how is it in real life?

4. How well is the Librem 15 + PureOS configured out-of-the-box? How well are the hardware configured with the OS altogether? How much troubleshooting I have to go through to get the basic setup running? I read somewhere on the forum that some people received their laptops with a broken OS installation and see a few threads on hardware/software issues with the Librem 15. What’s the truth behind this? While I really, really want to support a beautiful idea like the Librem, I just can’t invest 2000 bucks of company money on a laptop that is average-at-best, including the onboarding-phase. I know I am not going to get the fine-tuned installation process of a MacOS+Macbook and I understand that there might be some additional configuring afterwards, which is fine. What worries me is that I get a sub-par laptop for the price of a great one, and while I appreciate security and privacy, I can’t work without a great laptop.

5. Do you use the Librem 15 as your main workhorse? What laptops have you used before and which OS? How would you rate the Librem, say in a score of 1-5?

6. Are there big limitations on software I can (without a hassle) install to PureOS / Librem? I am a bit unsure about how PureOS works, are general open source software available or just a curated portion of it? For example, I absolutely love Atom for coding, can I build and run it on PureOS?

7. Let’s talk keyboard. I know I will be receiving a laptop with a keyboard layout different from what I’ve gotten used to (Swedish / Finnish layout). Is it a problem to just reconfigure the mapping? I am okay with the physical keys being what they are

8. How well is the hardware built to last high and low temperatures and humid weather? I am traveling a bit in both cold to very cold and warm to very hot and humid countries. What worries me especially is hot and humid weather (think jungle or rain season in some countries), but also cold sub-or-close-to-zero weather conditions and usage. I am not talking about covering the laptop with snow or soaking it in water, but just general outdoor usage in non-optimal weather.

9. If you honestly think the Librem is not for me, do you have a suggestion on what to look for? I am fine running Ubuntu on a Macbook, but what would you suggest as a easy landing to the Linux world in the form of a pre-configured laptop made for heavy duty use?

EDIT 10. One more, about updates. How does the update process work in general? Let’s say the world’s most horrible vulnerability is found from something in somewhere that also happens to run on the Librem+PureOS, what do I do? I am guessing there is no magic button to update, but am hoping that it does not mean I have to compile my own kernel to install a critical update?

Thanks for your time and answers in advance! Librem 15 surely looks great and sounds very intriguing. I hope you could shed some light on my worries

EDIT: Added questions… I can’t do waterfall even when listing questions it seems.

[thib]

Hi @vtntimo,

I don’t have a laptop with me at the moment, so if I don’t come back to you by tomorrow late evening you can ping me back

To answer a few of your questions:

• Librem laptops are sturdy
• Purism builds PureOS from a Debian base
• PureOS only supports free software, that is the main difference with Debian. You cannot have non-free dependencies installed automatically. There are good reasons behind this apparent limitation (search about the RYF certification for more details)
• The toucbpad is especially well supported on PureOS, but if I am not mistaken the touchpad drivers are being integrated upstream but not quite yet (the blocking point not being on Purism side)
• If you’re more comfortable with Ubuntu you can install it on a Librem laptop
• Not quite sure if this is in the forum rules, but System76 is a “Linux laptop makers”. They do not have nearly the same level of Freedom as Purism. Purism primarily was a hardware manufacturer who wanted their laptops to be 100% FLOSS compliant. They even went further by freeing their laptops from the Intel ME.

More details and links to back my claims when I reach my laptop

EDIT: @kakaroto or @mladen might be your best chance to get an answer regarding extreme temperature and humidity levels

[dedxi]

Considering your question at a high level, I would take a look at Purism’s description of themselves and their goals:

Purism is a security and freedom-focused computer manufacturer based in San Francisco, founded in 2014 with the fundamental goals of combining the philosophies of the Free Software movement with the hardware manufacturing process, and to make it easy for individuals and businesses to have computers that they can trust and feel safe using, i.e. making security more convenient than not.

I would also review the news and blog posts to decide for yourself if your priorities and those of Purism are aligned.

I have been using a Librem 13 running PureOS (since January) and I will attempt to answer your questions based on my experience so far.

1. PureOS seems fine for general use and it sounds like you would have no problem addressing any problems that would likely arise based on your level of knowledge.
2. OS reliability should be on-par with other Debian based distros (e.g. Ubuntu). I can’t comment definitively on hardware reliability since I’ve only had my Librem 13 for a few months, but it seems fine so far.
3. The touchpad on the Librem 13 seems pretty good to me, but I prefer a mouse and I’m not a particularly discerning user. If you search the forums here I think you’ll find a few posts discussing this.
4. I found it to be very well configured out of the box. The initial setup wizard was quick and easy, everything worked fine from day one for me. A note on the price: you are definitely paying extra for more open hardware and development of software discussed in the news and blogs linked to above, so be aware that your money doesn’t buy as much performance vs a laptop from a company less focused on these things.
5. No. My Librem 13 is my primary laptop, but it only gets used a few times a week. I primarily use a desktop running Arch Linux. Compared to previous laptops I’ve used (Asus, Dell, HP) I would rate it a 5 overall.
6. Yes. While it’s possible to install almost any Linux compatible application, the default software available through the “Software” installer is limited to items that meet Purism’s specific standards. The OS will allow the installation of all kinds of non-free software via Snaps, Flatpaks, and manually added repositories, but it will be a hassle compared to what you would be used to in MacOS.
7. I believe the initial setup wizard will ask which keyboard layout and language you want. It can be set later in system setting as well without much trouble.
8. It seems to handle the cold in my region pretty well (sitting in vehicle in freezing temperatures). Can’t vouch for high heat and humidity impact yet.
9. I would also recommend checking out System76 as another option to consider for comparison purposes. I have never used one of their computers, but they’ve been around for quite a while and are pretty well regarded as a Linux system supplier. They wouldn’t have the level of hardware freedom or the kill-switches you’d get with a Librem, but I’m not going to pretend those things outweigh pure cost and performance for all users.

[vtntimo]

Thank you for the quick answer. Much appreciated.

Like any good newbie, when my questions gets answered, I will only be back with more. We are getting somewhere, though, I swear!

“PureOS only supports free software, that is the main difference with Debian. You cannot have non-free dependencies installed automatically. There are good reasons behind this apparent limitation (search about the RYF certification for more details)”

I understand this, but then again don’t. I am having a hard time comprehending the meaning of “free”. Because of that, I will now assume that free means truly open source software where you can get the code and do literally whatever you want with it.

This sounds like something awesome, but in conflict with my why [I need a laptop]. I need one to do my job (and passion) with it. To do my job and passion, as I live in an imperfect world, I am bound to use certain tools and software that—while it might be open source in the definition of it’s source being available in the internet, might not fit the requirements. I am right now mainly thinking about NPM packages, CLI tools for web-based software such as gulp or grunt and some browsers /w developer tools. I need to be able to run either something Chromium-based to test my apps or at least something similar to Firefox with Firebug developer tools. I am bound to this by my work, and there’s not much I can do about generic person’s browser of choice.

Also, this sounds like it means my website browsing will also be limited in terms of content like video, if that particular video content uses a codec that is not completely free in the definition mentioned above, I cannot access this video content. This might turn out to be a problem with a client sending me content to be included in their website that has been encoded with something non-free (wouldn’t basic DivX be non-free in this definition?). This is an issue that I can live with, but really it’s another pebble in an otherwise fitting shoe.

Bottom line / TL;DR: I believe things in this universe like when you use them how they are meant to be used, and if you don’t then mommy will come and take the things away. I am worried that I am buying a 2000 dollar laptop only to replace the OS it was designed to run with and basically just throw away the whole idea of Librem. Should I be worried?

The toucbpad is especially well supported on PureOS, but if I am not mistaken the touchpad drivers are being integrated upstream but not quite yet (the blocking point not being on Purism side)

Absolutely no offense to a person trying to make me a wiser version of myself, but this sounded a bit like something a politician would say. Let me try to interpret and do some guesswork on what you we’re trying to say (or how I comprehended it): “The touchpad is especially well supported on PureOS, but it’s not working at all in the way I would like it to work, and there’s nothing I can do about it because a third party holds all the cards and will keep holding them for as long as they’d like (probably forever).”? I am probably wrong, so care to elaborate what you meant?

Not quite sure if this is in the forum rules, but System76 is a “Linux laptop makers”

Didn’t see it in the rules. I used a lousy term “Linux laptop makers” which means very little. What I meant was that I am looking for options on a laptop that suits my needs and is able to run Linux. My perfect world is a laptop that is fundamentally respecting the freedom and privacy of a person, is awesomely well built and can run all the software I need to be able to run to do my job and enjoy my leisure time. My perfect world is also a place where when I get a new laptop I spent my company money on, it will be seamlessly pre-configured to work with it’s hardware (such as the touchpad) and will in general just work. This is why I was a fanatic Macbook-user for many years: it just worked. So to ease whomever decides to help me with my questions, let me rephrase my initial question:

If the Macbook Pro is the gold standard of a laptop I can buy, open and it just works, how close is the Librem on a 1-5 scale (5 being just as working as a Macbook Pro)?

This is a critical question, as I am a novice with Linux and things like properly getting a Macbook Pro touchpad to function in a sane way with Ubuntu takes me three weeks and four re-installs (still ongoing). Perhaps not the best start with a new laptop, although the end result could be very rewarding?

[vtntimo]

Thank you for your answers. Very thorough!

Actually, the concept of Purism and it’s products feels very compelling to me. What I am looking for is not the most performant or cost-effective laptop out there. I make simple-ish web-based software that can be built with almost any lousy excuse of a modern computer, so I am not worried about performance at all. Cost is not an issue either, I am willing to chip in a bit of extra for the freedom, feeling of privacy and for the general effort. This is why I am here in the first place, I guess

Couple of follow-ups:

3. How much writing do you do on the laptop? Do you have to disable the touchpad when writing? My problem with Macbook+Ubuntu was that it constantly broke my flow-state with the pointer suddenly going haywire in the middle of a sentence. This is something that is beautifully designed and integrated in the Macbook+MacOS. Hell, it’s so beautifully designed that I didn’t even realise I had my palms on the touchpad in the first place

4. I have a some late 2013 / early 2014 (or something similar) Macbook Pro that is not even the most performant model of the time. If the Librem 15 can match this in performance, then I am sold on that part.

5. I am accustomed to using CLI tools like Homebrew (https://brew.sh), NPM package manager and apt-get. I’ve also built some autoconf-packages (is this even the right term?) including some dependencies. Am I going to live?

6. I think in this case I am going with someone known to be making solid general-purpose workhorse laptops. If I can’t have it all, then to hell with security and freedom. I can always unplug and throw it in the river!

[dedxi]

3. I do some light writing and editing on my Librem, but most is done on my desktop with full sized mechanical keyboard. The touchpad placement and size seem good as far as avoiding unintentional taps. Also, it can easily be set to automatically turn off while typing (might do this by default actually). I don’t remember ever having a problem with unintentional touches while typing.
4. Not sure of the particular CPU that Macbook would have, but I think overall performance should be similar.
5. PureOS is Debian based, so it uses apt and apt-get commands will work. PureOS would not stop you from manually installing e.g. NPM or building packages from source (guessing these are the “autoconf-packages” you mentioned). I’m used to doing a fair amount of CLI work as well and I have no problem with PureOS for that.

[vtntimo]

Cheers.

After doing some research, I guess I am too much on the middle grounds here. Technically the Librem is a fully functional option for me, as I can get the tools I need to do what I am to do. Practically, though, it makes absolutely no sense for me to buy a privacy-focused laptop to do what I do, as I need at least some of the “average joe” web browsers and am constantly connected to Google cloud services and the like. Besides using browsers and being connected to tracking platforms, I also need software that will probably not be available from Purism’s own channels and thus defeats the purpose of the whole system. I guess I am a typical person running in to Librem. I see dreams of being secure and (at least momentarily) private, but in my current reality could just send all my private information to whomever by hand because they can see it anyway. So, red carpet to my darkest secrets it is… I could still unplug and throw it in the river, though.

[soundboard6]

Sounds like @vtntimo has made a decision, which I respect. I am writing this reply for the consideration of other forum readers who may have similar questions.

I am also a web developer and former OSX user with a lot of overlap in work-tool requirements and relative level of Linux experience, when I decided to take the plunge. I had been using my personal laptop for dev work and when my company offered to buy me a new laptop for work, I ordered the Librem 15 v3 which arrived in early January, 2018. Here are my thoughts:

1. “Is Librem and PureOS suitable for a novice Linux user?” I think so, but there is a learning curve, for sure. This forum is helpful, as are the issue tracker and #purism channel on free-node. PureOS runs PureBrowser by default, which is built on Firefox. I have also run Chromium and Tor Browser with no difficulty. None of this prevents users from access to Google or any other online service.

2. “Does the Librem and PureOS fit ‘heavy-duty’ use?” Yes, definitely. I have experienced issues, as have others on this forum, but we do find solutions.

3. Touchpad? Works great, except when it hasn’t. My touchpad has stopped working twice, but I’ve been able to get it back within about 24 hours of a breaking change. What you need to know is that this product is backed by a passionate team of smart problem-solvers. If something breaks, tell them and they will help you find a solution. I should mention the touchpad on the 15" laptop is off-center, offset to accommodate the number pad on the keyboard, so this doesn’t really bother me, but some have mentioned they find it annoying.

4. PureOS install was simple. OOB configuration was pretty nice, including about 35-40 applications, most of which are utilities or essentials. It also includes a program called “Boxes” where you can run VMs in parallel. It is pretty easy to customize PureOS. Choose your shell of choice to run install, un-install, upgrade and update scripts. Debian systems use apt for this, and you can specify which repositories you want apt to look at in the /etc/apt/ directory sources.list file(s). (Obviously Purism cannot ensure data security issues with any software installed from repos outside of their control.) PureOS also comes with a Package Updater GUI tool which lets you select (or deselect) whichever packages you want to update, if you prefer.

5. Main workhorse? Yes. I’ve been an Apple user for many years, but did have some Windows laptops long ago. Librem is excellent. I’d rate it 4 out of 5.

6. I welcome the limitations based on the assumption that the team at Purism knows more about data security than I do. You can install Atom by following these instructions, which will probably add a file or small directory to your /etc/apt/ folder in order to allow your system to enable the appropriate repository to track updates. I currently run Sublime-Text3, as well as a few other non-purism-endorsed applications without difficulty.

7. The keyboard is great. If you’re in Sweden, I think this is what you need. Or maybe this. If you need to do more detailed key mapping, that can be done, as well. Is it finnicky? Yes. Will it work? Yes.

8. I have no experience with cold weather use. I live in Austin, Texas and will report back in a few months about extended outdoor high-temperature use (if I remember). I work mostly indoors, though.

Purism is a small, young company and they are still working out some of the glitches, most of which I consider minor irritations. My monitor has an irritating flashing problem which seems to be related to the power supply. (It only happens while charging.) I am working with the team to determine the exact cause and I’m hopeful it will be fixed. There are some points on the laptop where I feel it is a little too thin. For example, I sometimes feel a little “give” if I squeeze the front of the laptop too hard while closing the lid or picking it up to put in my backpack. I’ve read that some users have inadvertently disconnected the internal solder connection on the headphone while inserting or removing headphones, but this hasn’t happened to me.

Overall though, I’m really happy with my Librem 15. I have been disappointed with the direction of my former favorite manufacturer and Purism’s mission resonates with my ideology. Like you, my work necessitates that some of the software I install on my work laptop cannot be truly “free”. But I’m certain that my data security is in better hands running Purism’s hardware and software than it would be under the control of most of the other manufacturers.

[vtntimo]

Thanks for the reply. Anything can happen, I haven’t ordered a laptop yet

[knoqi]

I too switched from a 15" MacBook Pro, same general time-frame as the one you mentioned. I got the Librem 15" and 13" and, to be honest, I like the 13" better. They are pretty similar in specs but the keyboard layout of the 13" is more like my old MacBook Pro. The main reason I looked to switch is that the new Apple laptops are just no longer made for me. I hate the new keyboards, especially the touchbar gimmick and therefore lack of Esc key, etc. Anyway…

The biggest con I’ve noticed is the screen. You get pretty spoiled by the MacBook Pro “Retina” screen. But, I can deal with it.

Next up is the touchpad. It actually didn’t take too long to get used to it, but the Librem touchpad has a much rougher texture. Two-finger scrolling works fine, you might have to toggle a setting to flip the scroll direction depending on your preference. I found the “coasting”, or the amount of travel when flicking the scrolling, isn’t as great as with the Mac. I’m guessing this is more software than hardware and might get fixed, but it is what it is now. Also, the two-finger “back” and “forward” gestures simply don’t work anywhere I’ve tried. Again, I’m guessing this is software but I haven’t dug into it enough to either make it work or find out if it just hasn’t been implemented yet. I haven’t had any problems with the palm detection and typing.

I’m a back-end developer, I don’t do much GUI / WebUI work, but I do type a lot. I find the keyboard to be perfectly fine, if only a tiny bit less that the old MacBook Pro keyboard. It’s waaaaaay better than the newest MacBook keyboards. I have a bit of difficulty with the left shift key ignoring me from time to time (if I hit the extreme wrong edge of the key), so it can still use a little bit of improvement. It also has no capslock light indicator. But, I have typed on the keyboard exclusively for days’ of work, and I’m happy with it.

I do tend to use my external keyboard / mouse / huge monitor more often than not. Here the HDMI-only video option is a bit limiting. I can’t run at full 4k mode because that’d mean only 30hz refresh rate, which is just awful to work under. So I run at 2560x1440, which ends up fine for text sizes too and I don’t have to try to get Linux apps happy with HiDPI – HiDPI is still an issue with LInux, but it’s getting better every month or so.

I have no idea on the weather resiliency, sorry. Mine is mostly used indoors.

Of note, I do not run PureOS, I run free-mode Debian, which is just installing Debian and answering “No” to the “do you want to use non-free repositories?” question. The only reason I do this is that I’m a long time Linux user and I prefer to run stripped down systems and slowly add the stuff I need, avoiding as much “cruft” as I can. PureOS has one install option, and that has lots of “stuff”. I understand that this is mostly just my eccentricity, but it works for me. I use a stripped down install of KDE and I use the Firefox browser, just downloaded from Mozilla and manually installed. I use a lot of firejails for privacy reasons (most people would not do this). I also use a lot of virtual machines using libvirt/kvm/qemu and that works wonderfully (I used VirtualBox on the Mac, and Fusion for a short time).

I also use Krita with my Wacom tablet and love it. This set up for digital art is every bit as good as what I had on the Mac, which surprised the heck out of me. This is even more true if you can get Krita 4, which was just recently released.

I also do a lot of music creation / sound design BUT I haven’t been happy with any LInux-based options here yet. Playback is fine, I just don’t like the freedom-based creation tools available. This is probably just a personal preference thing though; I’m quite used to Ableton Live at this point.

Oh that reminds me, one last warning, the headphone jacks on my Librems appear to have a design flaw. They are very noisy when I also have the power adapter plugged in. I thought it might’ve just been faulty shielding on the first Librem I got, but it’s the same way on my second one, so I’m guessing it’s just a design flaw. This is important if you ten to use headphones while coding while plugged into power. Luckily, I don’t do that as much these days, but I used to and it would drive me crazy.

BTW, updates on most every Linux distro are pretty easy. Most have a GUI tool that will notify you and you click to update, just like on MacOS. You can also do, for example, a quick ‘sudo apt get update ; sudo apt get upgrade’ once a week yourself if you don’t prefer the GUI options.

Final thought: Yes, I’m happy with my Librem and it works great for me, which just a few caveats. I’m sad about Apple’s direction, but I’ve moved on now.

[soundboard6]

Some settings can be adjusted in several different ways. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad, but essentially, some packages give access to different config files than others. (You can also edit these files directly, but I find the two GUI tools fairly effective and easy-to-use.) So you will probably need to fiddle with the Settings package AND the Gnome Tweaks Tool package in order to get your touchpad working just the way you like. For example, there is a “Disable while typing” option in Tweaks, but not in the Settings interface. I type code all day on my machine and do not have to disable the touchpad, but then again I do not rest my hands on the laptop while typing. (I tend to rest my wrists on the edge of my desk, instead.) So these preferences are obviously personal. As a longtime MacBook Pro user, I decided to disable “Tap to Click” on my Librem (which can be done in Settings, but not Gnome Tweaks). Apple does do many things well and their touchpad is exceptional, imo. I found Librem’s tap-to-click feature more annoying than useful and over time got used to pressing down fully to make my selections. There is also a middle-click feature on the trackpad which I disabled, since this did not exist on my Mac. (I found it would sometimes paste code blocks where I did not intend, which is a real problem, but easy to disable in Settings). In short, there are tons of options worth exploring but once you get it dialed in, I think you’ll like it almost as much as the ones from that other silicon-valley builder.

[lukman]

i’m from Indonesia
i want to buy Librem 15 for my office needed
but first of all
can i chat with Purism admin?
to make sure about shipping cost,import duty,etc
thanks

[thib]

Hi @lukman,

International shipping is free of charge (or already included in the laptop price, depending on how you see it). Still, it is up to you to gather informations about the customs fees and to pay for it

[jcrben]

@vtntimo I’m in a somewhat similar boat, albeit more experienced with Linux. I’ve used Linux off and on for a decade but have been running Mac for the past few years.

My main suggestion is to check out the Nix package manager which works on both Mac and Linux. That way you you can become comfortable with a package manager for Linux while using your Mac.

If you get good with Nix, you might check out the operating system designed around the Nix package manager, NixOS - it’s a more reliably designed Linux distribution. Unlike most distributions, you can always rollback changes if you screw something up, and it’s easy to put your entire system configuration into a couple small text files. Plus it’s run on Github and it has open CI system - you can see the tests for example at https://hydra.nixos.org/job/nixos/release-18.03/tested#tabs-constituents.

One general problem with Linux in my experience is that there’s not enough of a separation between userspace and the underlying system. As a result, user applications end up messing with the underlying system. Also, if you add a package, there’s no guarantee that removing it will entirely remove it. With nixos, that’s not a problem.

[lawney]

Is there any reason why having hardware kill-switches or a neutered Intel ME would not be beneficial even in a use case where you are heavily using OS and Software that invades one’s privacy? It seems to me that if one must use Google/Windows/Etc type OS/Software, then having such thoughtfully designed hardware would be as important, if not even more important.

I’m considering the Librem for such use cases, and would be happy to pay a premium for some limited peace of mind and in support of a company who is doing good work.

[blendergeek]

The hardware kill switches are most important. They allow you to KNOW that your computer is not watching/listening even if you do not trust the operating system.

[bavay]

I have a Librem 15v2 and I use it quite often, for home office twice a week as well as for some photo “sorting” and light editing (I don’t do any tedious photo editing, since when I take pictures for an assignment, I will take hundreds of them and don’t want to spend hours do some touch-up work. It’s either good or junk). I do mostly c++ dev in my job, so lots of typing (along with reports and proposals). I am happy with the keyboard as well as with the screen (the 15" was a must for me, since I otherwise use dual-24" monitors and could not imagine having to get down to 13" twice a week if not more). I am very satisfied with the hardware and the performance it delivers (although this is an older, v2 model). And you can unscrew the cover, replace the sdd / hdd or the ram (since nowadays lots of models have soldered ram).

I run Debian on it (I am used to Debian and wanted to flexibility of installing whatever software I need without having to manually do it) and everything is fine. And I like the kill switches very much (when hanging out at a conference with open wifi and thousands of other people, I prefer a kill switch to be sure that the whole thing is locked down and not potentially open to any hacker around).

Mathias

[vtntimo]

I see the light now. Maybe my next tech purchase is the Librem, time will tell.