While many people think of enterprise computers in terms of systems running Windows or MacOS, there have long been millions of enterprise users running a GNU/Linux-based enterprise Linux distribution and entire industries where all employees run Linux. While sometimes this is for philosophical reasons, often it’s also for practical reasons: a Linux desktop is the ideal development environment for instance, for writing software for the Linux servers that dominate the cloud.
Picking hardware for the enterprise that runs Linux can be challenging for IT departments, but the Librem 14 is a drop-in replacement for any existing enterprise Linux laptop and makes deploying Linux in the enterprise easy. In this post we will outline some of the reasons why the Librem 14 is the ideal laptop for enterprise Linux.
Respectfully, unless there is evidence of parts availability I’m less than convinced this would be suited for enterprise.
And that’s independent of the challenge that nearly every enterprise I provide support for or have otherwise dealt with won’t buy from a vendor that isn’t in the magic quadrant.
I agree there are some nice to have features, but I would be seriously concerned about the ability to meet the scale of the purchases themselves as well as the scale of repairs in terms of parts only available from Purism like main boards and cases etc.
And while some enterprises will choose to have some departments have different hardware generally it’s preferred to have standard hardware so that systems can be quickly swapped then reimaged as needed. This makes the Librem 14 a tradeoff as it is missing hardware for windows hello for business which would be a nice to have for other departments.
This isn’t to say the Libre 14 isn’t nice, just that I don’t see it as a great fit beyond the SMB space and don’t think it is the enterprise gold this post implies.
I see your point. Obviously if someone only buys from a limited subset of available vendors, and we aren’t on that list, then we wouldn’t be an option for them. However, a lot of IT outfits these days don’t necessarily have those constraints, and often take a hybrid “BYO” approach where they even allow employees to buy and expense the ideal laptop of their choice. This is how Apple elbowed its way into the enterprise, where before it was an IBM-only or Dell-only affair for many places.
I see the Librem 14 as an ethical, free software alternative to Apple in the enterprise for instance, and I personally think its growth in the enterprise laptop space will likely follow a similar path Macbooks did in the early aughts.
And while I do still have concerns around parts availability and turn around times for repairs, if your comparison point is apple … I anticipate comparable turnaround times albeit for different reasons.
I don’t doubt it, I was just bringing out the humor. It is like the proverbial top secret blackboard in a locked windowless room. But the lowly admin has the keys.
If I, as an enterprise, would hand out (these) laptops to my employees, I would actually be responsible for their privacy, and of that of my company. I would have to maintain the laptop, OS and configuration, and be able to respond to security threads (like the sudo and log4j vulnerabilities). This is not different from a company machine, vehicle or building my employee is working with or in.