Are the next batch of Librem 13’s going to be version 5? I am looking to buy one in the next few months. Hoping for slightly more processing power.
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They are certainly in the works based on comments seen here. Not sure what all will be the distinguishing differences. My hope, personally is dual channel RAM.
Hopefully there will be something soon, I’m also hoping at least for the addition of dual channel RAM with more processing power.
With system76 using Intel’s 10th gen processors together with coreboot now I think they will have to come up with something competitive to their offerings now.
They’re already late to it this time, probably from all their resources pouring into the development and production of the phone.
Coreboot is one thing, but does that automatically imply that the ME on those chipsets have been disabled?
As new models usually came in spring, v5 should arrive soonish.
However, the Corona update said
Mid March: Librem 13 V4 inventory
Which is a bit unexpected. Maybe the v5 will take a few more months.
Whatever the plan was, most likely it looks very different currently thanks to Corona.
I mean… I would not be completely surprised if the v5 would feature a US-made PCB or at least more US-based assembly, continuing the trend of the Librem key and the L5 USA.
It would make even more sense now.
But even if that were the case, they’d still need parts from Asia.
In short: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
System76 disables ME by setting the HAP bit, this ability has been around for a while and there is a pull request for it here:
for me_cleaner.
There’s a couple versions due to the partition layout changes in the newer firmware. Entirely removing ME the way they do in the current Librems may be more complicated for them to accomplish on the newer chips running the newer versions of ME due to the partition layout changes. I won’t be terribly surprised if the next release of the Librem doesn’t have ME entirely gutted or isn’t on a 10th gen chip due to potential problems with gutting the ME on the newer firmware versions.
System76 is just using re-branded Clevo’s so they’re not manufacturing the laptop the same way Purism is. Instead they customize the firmware and have their own Linux distribution called Pop!_OS.
They’ve been around for a while and from what I recall they worked out some issues with hybrid graphics in Pop!_OS when most distributions were still having problems in that arena when it first came out.
I would expect good firmware/software support from System76, but not as much on the hardware front like Purism is doing.
They’ve also added EFI boot capabilities into coreboot by integrating EDK II into the coreboot firmware for their laptops.
So definitely some differences, I would expect System76 to be able to keep pace more rapidly with newer processors due to the way that they have approached providing support for Coreboot on a few of their laptops.
The thing it is currently missing that Purism has is PureBoot.
I was under the impression that Librem 13/15s were also made by Clevo. Anyone know for sure whether or not that’s the case?
Thanks.
I don’t think that is the case at all. I haven’t seen a laptop with similar I/O, keyboards, screens, chasis and cases. I mean I haven’t made an exhaustive look, but I know when I look at System76 laptops and like tuxedo computer laptops they all look the same.
Sure!
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Just out of curiosity, while the Wildebeest is clearly a reference model as well, I don’t believe it comes from Clevo either. (Libretrend Wildebeest) Anyone know if this is the case?
Doesn’t look like a Clevo, I usually check sagernotebook to see the Clevo models since they normally have them up pretty quick with pictures.
Has a dGpu, but single channel RAM ?
Maybe that was a tradeoff for the two M.2 slots that both look to support NVMe.
It is a great laptop. I have one.
2 m.2 slots that support NVME. It has a dedicated ethernet port as well, with a collapse mount so that it can still keep the sleek shape of the form. Coreboot is coming to the laptop, but as of right now it is a using an american megatrends bios. It runs Windows perfectly as well.