New Post: Librem 14 Update: Freed EC, Shipping Beginning in March

[amosbatto]

@NineX

now the bomb, small information that never was exposed, but can be checked if you wish: librem 14 is nothing more that Clevo Design made laptop, librem don’t produces them at all. (same suppiler that delivers system76 laptops btw.) Librem only delivers OS and firmware here, hardware design is done by clevo.

@NineX

so process looks like: design (look and feel- those can be done by vendor, or took from company - go to clevo site and search in ready to use designs, you will find 14 there…) → design of electronigcs (that is also done by clevo, based on specs from Librem)

There is only one Clevo model on the Clevo web site that is close to the specs of the Librem 14, which is the N141CU, but:

• its keyboard doesn’t match the L14,
• the shape of its case doesn’t match the case of the L14,
• the shape of its webcam in the lid doesn’t match the L14’s webcam,
• the ports on its sides don’t match the L14,
• it has a Thunderbolt port, which the L14 lacks,
• it doesn’t have a TPM chip, which the L14 has

Frankly, I don’t think that you know what you are talking about, but feel free to prove me wrong. By the way, laptops often have similar designs because they are based on Intel reference designs, so just because you see a similar layout in a Clevo motherboard doesn’t mean that Clevo was necessarily the designer.

@NineX

system 76 is not competitor… it’s cooperator here in many aspects:
see information about “liberation of EC” firware was done in coop… actually system 76 devs did id
well you seem don’t know how laptop market works.

Yes, Purism is using System76’s ec code, but the EC in System76 laptops are either the ITE IT8587E or the ITE IT5570E. The Librem 14 uses the ITE IT8528E and “IT8528E” does not appear in the source code for System76’s ec, so Purism had to do some adaption of the code. Purism promises to work with System76 to upstream its changes (which is how FOSS is supposed to work).

The different 8051 chip in the L14 is further evidence that Clevo is not the ODM of the L14.

@NineX

tehcnilally there are 4 vendors of laptops. Clevo / Compal / brand owned by MSI/ and one Apple uses, that name i don’t remember.

There are a lot more than 4 ODMs of laptops. 80% of the world’s laptops are produced by Quanta, Compal, Wistron (part of Acer), Inventec and Pegatron (part of ASUSTeK), but there are a lot of other ODMs like MSI, Clevo, Benton, TPS Best, Shenzhen South Digital, Hasee, Gigabyte, Getac, Tongfang, Elitegroup (ECS), Foxconn and Flextronics, and we have no idea which ODM Purism is using. Apple laptops have been manufactured by Quanta, Pegatron and Foxconn, so I’m not sure which ODM you are referring to.