Since my laptop continued having issues, I have run it in a special mode for a few months. I would not use it for anything, I would just run the system update scripts once a week. My objective was to see if the system stays stable.
Predictably enough, it did not. After the most recent update I was prompted to to do from the UI, the OS would not boot into the UI but into the shell instead. Once again: I have been doing nothing on my laptop for several months but updating the OS until it broke AGAIN!!!
At this point I am exchanging emails with the support that does not seem to be able to identify the problem, much less to fix it. Again: This is a $3,000+ laptop that was already broken for two months (hardware) and now it is broken again (software).
I read your entire post history, so I am informed about your situation except your private correspondence to Purism support:
First off, decide whether you want to use Coreboot + SeaBIOS or PureBoot (Coreboot + Heads) for boot firmware: PureBoot is for advanced users and can be difficult for someone expecting a $3,000+ laptop to work out of the box justified solely on price alone; Coreboot + SeaBIOS is significantly more simpler, but you lose cryptographic tamper protection of boot firmware using your Librem Key.
Second, decide on what operating system you want to use; I can provide detailed advice for installation and configuration of either PureOS or Qubes OS.
Be brief and explicit, and backup any important files before seriously replying back to me.
I have been going back and forth with the support for about three weeks now. They kept sending me shell statements that were essentially clearing the apt cache, removing some packages and reinstalling others. None of that worked because quite obviously they have NO IDEA what was wrong and how to fix it. At this point it looks like they have run out of sh*t to throw at the wall and the communication is no more.
In terms of re-installing an operating system. I never understood why Purism took arguably the best Linux distro, Debian, and bastardized it. What was the reason for that? Wasn’t Debian not good enough for you? I have quite a few arguments to believe that even if I reinstall your distro, it will break again. I want Debian on my laptop. If that needs to remove all the security features first, so be it. I don’t care. I have owned this laptop for about a year and it was completely useless waste of my money.
If you want to complain about Purism in your own public journal instead of actually working towards a solution and acknowledging my questions, I suggest posting in the Purism subreddit instead, where other entitled customers exist to perpetually fume and spite them.
Working towards a solution? I am a paying customer and quite frankly I do not see why I should be looking for help in forums that were invented for technologies developed by volunteers and provided free of charge. If you sell trash, for A LOT OF MONEY, at least you should decency to provide technical support that will be able to make your software work. You people are a disgrace to the whole Linux community.
Other “users” are mostly people who where not patient enough on the corona chip shortages of the whole worlds industry (an issue Purism could not do anything about). A lot of people decides this time to cancel the pre-orders and Purism decided not to give refunds - maybe because of the amount of refund requests.
So in most cases people didn’t even rate the products itself on that page. A lot of people are happy with the products and the support. I don’t know what’s the problem of your case and don’t want to argue about, but your link doesn’t display the reality.
I’ve never had any problems with customer service either in regards to my L13 which I bought in 2019 or my recent purchase of 2 L5’s which were were worth the wait.
Most of the time I would find the answer to my issue in the forum, and if not here I would email CS in a courteous manner and would receive a detailed answer to my problem.
I used to think that since I was a paying customer (over 5K spent in products) I deserved VIP treatment until I realized that I opted into a R&D product of which I have no regrets.
Coming from using windows products to where I am now with PureOS product lines was and still is a learning experience of which I gained more knowledge and confidence which was obtained from the assistance gleaned from helpful members of this forum and CS.
As far as I am concerned Purism puts out a good product and it was a good investment.
This will sound completely contradictory to the experience you have faced, here is my general opinion on this specific statement:
Debian is and will always be a community-backed distro. There are many advantages of this, but most importantly, it belongs to no one entity and no company or billionaire can take it over. However, no matter what company it is (System76, Purism, et al), the company needs to have quality assurance of their product line and will therefore maintain a fork of the upstream distro as their own corporate-backed distro. The package lists need to be vetted so changes don’t occur underneath their feet and break systems that they operate/support.
So, the alternative is to… not? I don’t understand your point. Yes, working on a problem with support ideally results in a solution. You’re obviously frustrated that it hasn’t materialized, but we cannot help if not provided any useful information.
My laptop works great, so I’d argue it’s certainly not a trash design. It sounds like support is trying to help you, despite the solution not solving the problem. If you’re posting on a public forum, you’re essentially asking the public to assist you, as official support is not generally provided here. If you still want help, maybe we can help. But if you just want to rant, I can sympathize with you but don’t need to waste my time.