I ordered July 5th, 2020 ( I think that is the third day of the campaign? ) No shipping/tracking information yet 
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I’ll repeat myself: The expectation that everyone in the company knows everything about their products is unreasonable.
The weirdness was first spotted by someone who took closer look at the post https://puri.sm/posts/librem-14-in-pictures/, and you can still see it there.
The only point I can fully agree with, is that Purism needs a PR person, who would set their outside communications straight.
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OK, this whole situation is nuts.
This community is plagued with various degrees internal distrust, whether such distrust is warranted and to what extent matters very little at this point.
I understand the pain on all sides. Even if I were to assume the worst about Purism’s competence, the staff are all clearly doing very difficult and painful jobs that are not made easier by this entire rigamarole, regardless of how necessary the criticism may or may not be. Honestly, I don’t understand how Rankin hasn’t blown a fuse yet, that’s an accomplishment in itself.
I also thoroughly appreciate the pains of the Purism skeptics here, more than I can explain. I’ve been checking in multiple times a day for well over six months, I’m tired now. This whole situation has only been frustrating and unsatisfying at every step, expectations beaten down repeatedly. All of the hope and excitement I had for the Librem 14 has gone, and that’s OK.
I’m not even invested in the Librem 14 directly, I just couldn’t get a replacement under warranty after my Librem 13 failed and was placed on the waitlist. I’m supposed to be feeling lucky, but really I’m just wishing my Librem 13 was still with me, even if it had to stay somewhat broken for the rest of it’s lifetime. I can’t imagine what it’s like for people who actually paid for the device.
I think that it’s time for all of us to ask for a refund or stop caring about the Librem 14, this isn’t healthy. Even if it means giving up on Purism entirely at risk of loosing everything they stand for, we can’t keep doing this. Let’s put this to bed start thinking beyond Purism.
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Please. Can you explain me how to build a truly modular & libre phone without bricks, on the market???
It seems like I’m on the opposite site of most of the critics here.
That fix and it’s explanation by @nicole.faerber in the now closed post where this thing first came up shows that purism is trying to do the right thing Engineering wise, that they can do within the time given.
From my understanding of her post and my own initial analysis of the fix it looks like it’s done to adhere to some EMI regulation probably emissions on a attached USB cable.
So even if the solder joints should fail it probably wouldn’t cause any Problem for the normal operation of the USB port but only a slight spike in it’s electromagnetic spectrum at the switching frequency of that SMPS.
In my opinion the answers we get from the Purism Staff are the answers from the actual engineers doing the work not some spokesperson who does not understand the technology behind it at all, but might be a way better wordsmith. I always prefer the engineer over the sales, PR or social media person.
I still want my Librem 14 asap even with that fix.
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I understand that the fix is not critical and that even if it would fail, the laptop would keep working normally. My fear, however, is that it might introduce a short circuit (if you look closely, the solder points of the fix are very close to some other pads on the board), or that it might come loose and short other components on the board. Do you think that’s a valid concern?
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This my concern too. Loose metal pieces inside electronics is never a good idea.
Yeah and I still want my laptop.
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I still not ordened yet my L14, i could wait until
Purism have on stock L14 without hotfix.
I hope that on next time Purism to inform to customers any changes on the products preorders…or any.
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Someone post a picture of a giant ball of solder and do the same thing but Librem 14 instead.
I’m not very knowledgeable what to not do with PCBs, but what if you put some sort of resin over the two spots the hotfix was applied to keep them in place to prevent them from rattling around? I imagine this might void a warranty though.
Please do not speak for the rest of us.
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So, playing devils advocate, what risk is there in removing the hot fix? @nicole.faerber said it has no affect in functionality?
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I share your concern about the fix coming lose and shorting out other components. I’m not an expert in this area though, and defer to Nicole’s reassurances and others’ analysis.
If I could speak my mind a little bit though having observed this Librem 14 deliveries situation since the beginning of the year…
To me it seems that Purism customers are very similar to other early adopter customer segments, for example Tesla customers (pre-2020), such as myself.
- Emotionally invested in the product
- Principled
- “tech-savvy”
Which from my observations is a double edged sword for product companies:
On the one hand they are advocates, they spread the word about the product because they really do love it, or at least the concept/principle behind it. Free word-of-mouth advertising can be a huge asset to scaling. Even if they don’t spread the word, the amount of research and time spent in making the decision to buy is possibly worth way more than the money spent to buy it.
On the other hand, if something goes wrong, reactions can likewise be emotional, especially if they’ve been telling everyone else about how good it is! Now their personal reputation is on the line, if not a potential feeling of time wasted/feeling cheated.
Principled/tech-savvy
This goes to what Manuel was saying about Purism engineers responding to peoples questions (I wish more would), but it’s great that people like Nicole are willing provide quite detailed and seemingly very transparent responses to questions when she’s available. This is a huge plus over other companies.
Purism is big on branding/marketing (at least that’s what it looks to me, a new customer). What I get out of that is two things:
- Principled - I’d hazard to guess a large number of Purism customers are of the mindset - “free” as in freedom device. This principle is very close if not interchangeable with transparency. While Purism isn’t an NGO or similar entity that would be required to be highly transparent, it’s not unreasonable to think their customers would appreciate if not expect that level of transparency. From my experience, this also means many customers (unfortunately the less vocal) are willing to be a lot more forgiving of mistakes, if it’s clear the people behind the company and it’s mission are admirable (beyond making money).
- Premium/High Quality - A polished and consistent experience, that one would expect extends beyond the products but to customer service as well. Engineers (especially principled ones, myself included) aren’t necessarily the best people to provide this. It would definitely be advantageous to have someone who is good at putting themselves in the customers shoes and be empowered to do the right thing (from the customers perspective). This is something that (using my earlier example) Tesla is terrible at, and it shows in how upset their customers can get with their service org at times (to the point of wanting to sell their cars out of principle). Amazon however…
Amazon, is a good example of a company willing to eat the cost of a bad experience regardless of who’s fault it is. This builds strong brand trust, removes significant friction from the buying experience and builds strong customer loyalty. In an era where “customer is always right” seems to be dieing, disruptors like Amazon are bringing it back and it seems to be a winning strategy.
In conclusion
As a community of customers who care about Purism’s success, it’s my opinion we need to be more understanding / patient with Purism, and also understand that any negative pressure (especially if over the top, unreasonable) we place on Purism’s employees is likely to kill the motivation they have for building the products we want (which will impact quality, or worse), and also reduce the chances of them interacting with us and being transparent.
Likewise, I think it would be helpful for Purism to reevaluate whether it’s succeeding in upholding it’s brand image consistently across interactions with the public. What can be done to improve operational transparency, and accommodating customers even when it means it may effect individual profitability.
Personally I’d love to read more detailed blog posts about the inner workings at Purism, and the actual real mass manufacturing challenges that Nicole had alluded to, maybe in a weekly or by-weekly blog posts. Mostly out of pure curiosity, and I honestly don’t think this is something that would damage public image – it might actually help bring in valuable suggestions/recommendations on how to improve operations, just like open-source contributions help improve open-source software.
P.S. When will Purism have a drop-in “freed” Tesla MCU/FSD computer for me to use? I have a spare in my basement if someone wants to try. 
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I don’t know about removing it ourselves. But if it breaks off due to repeated thermal stress as someone has noted then it’s bad idea to have the metal piece around circuitry.
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Interference with your other electronic equipment and that of others.
I just want to chime in to counter balance all the hate we see in here. Yes, L14 is late as F. Yes there’s been some miscommunications or poorly handled communications. Yes there is a pandemic and components shortage. But comparing Purism to Apple or Dell is just ridiculous. I do like having actual engineers talking. I prefer that organic communication rather than polished BS. It’s way more authentic and true.
Now that fix. Nicole explained. It makes sense. There’s no conspiracy like some people in these forums would to love to see.
Is it a beautiful fix? Probably not. But I’ve made way worse soldering jobs myself and never had issue with matter suddenly disapearing in some random black hole made by the Chinese government in CERN…
I want this laptop. It’s a beautiful machine. There is no equivalent anywhere. Sure I would have preferred getting it sooner without it needing a EM compliance hardware patch.
But that’s what it is. I’ll live with it. If you can’t, ask for a refund and move on. We don’t need to have haters sticking in the forums trashing absolutely everything Purism does. We don’t need them to “save” us.
I would like to thank all the team for all the efforts they clearly put into making this laptop a reality, going through random shitstorm after random shitstorm. Seriously guys, if you are that much outraged by Purism, get a life because it seems yours sucks.
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Doesn’t Purism do this themselves?
Perception is everything as a startup and small company. Hire a PR person.
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I’m talking about comparing what Purism can achieve vs the weight of Apple and Dell. Not their products. You completely miss the point.
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You realize you are causing way more harm than any concerned customer or “hater” as you put it.
This is not a cult,its a company,it has customers,customers have questions and concerns. It is valid and reasonable,and when it is feflt that it is dismissed,mocked or disregarded…it becomes reasonable to act unreasonable,because it is just not acceptable by any company. Companies that compared to purism are small fry would not be immune from questions or concerns,nor purism.
They/we/I are met with contempt like yours. You are the hater,and you are cultish. You realize i put an enormous ammount of money on the line and got others on board and now im the idiot in their eyes,as they too put in money.
Thanks for your vitriol, reverse uno,keep it.
No longer so sincere,
Jon Kovach.
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