This is the ‘official’ link to the blog post - for discussion of the post itself. However discussion of the actual product may be better over here: The unborn Librem 16 (now born)
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The Title is terrible so big, change it to fancy.
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Indeed. Discourse is choosing the title automatically based on the linked blog post. So the actual complaint is about the title of the original blog post, which is a little verbose. I fixed it somewhat but Discourse also enforces unique topic titles, which is a constraint here for reasons I won’t bore you with.
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I know the feeling with headlines with my own paper newsrag. I have to choose carefully. I would have shorted the firs clause before the comma: “Purism Launches Its Librem 16 Laptop, …”
It takes out the word “Announces” and “of”. Meaning is not lost because that’s what headlines do, announce.
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TL;DR
Intel Core i7-13620H – 10 cores, 16 threads; DDR4 RAM (2 slots; max 64GB); 1920x1200.
Wifi/Bluetooth: Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 / Bluetooth 5.2 (FOSS driver; firmware is proprietary)
USB: 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A; 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 (PD, DP alt mode) Type-C
Ethernet port. HDMI port. Power through the USB-C ports (no barrel connector).
2 HW Kill Switches (camera + microphone; wifi+bluetooth).
$2,900 for 16GB RAM and 512GB NVMe drive
$4,200 for 32GB RAM and 2TB NVMe drive
$9,800 for 64GB RAM and 16TB NVMe (2 x 8TB) drives.
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We shouldnt lose control and freedom thanks to opensource free-bug-fix.
@FranklyFlawless L16 finally released. Come back Frankly and dont game hard to get.
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Librem 16 HKS
Librem 14 HKS
So on L16 there is a new LED Notification ang grip botton. L14 botton grip was terrible.
I just curious if L16 and L14-v2 fully support gnu system. I did a heavy breakdown on xe driver some time ago and xe reused to boot without linux-blob guc.
Also promised gnu serial output on L16, as on old L14 was hard to get serial, also on old L4 there are too many light leaks from led which was terrible.
So if L14v2 do not full support gnu system then i can not buy one because i wouldnt feel happy.
So puting the linux-blob to spi it is not compatible with real gnu system, on many like initramfs, gnulinux and more. Gnu system do not taint the initram with linuxblobs either gnulinux boot linuxblobs.
But i would be honest i love Librem 14 even under x86, however my Fantasy it is Librem 14 under powerpc.
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Is this purism markup or is this what chips actually cost now? My librem 14 has 32GB ram and I dont think I could possibly want less, but I also didn’t think it cost so much back in the day… I need to be careful not to drop it!!
My librem 14 is like my home. I originally bought it thinking I might not use it but just wanted to throw money at the Librem 5 company, but it turns out I use the L14 literally almost daily. In a world of travel and whatever else, this machine boots super quickly, runs my ram guzzling non AI programs I write, and I can feel like I trust it. If the battery goes flat from me abusing it, I buy another one.
But I’ve also noticed that after I bought a System76 mini pc to use with my Nexdock, because Librem Mini is always out of stock, I got even more ram so this little System76 play machine with its sad proprietary drivers can run malware-infested pureos (that is to say, intel firmware from debian) and it has 96GB ram and 8TB of nVME storage and it only cost me like $2500.
I’m beginning to realize that maybe more than a Librem 16 form factor, I might prefer if the System76 mini PC form factor (which is I think a very small mini PC size, possibly smaller than Librem Mini, despite the power) were something I could carry in a backpack to plug into a NexDock laptop shell but also I think NexPhone is wrong and instead it should have been a phone shaped shell with no brain, like how NexDock is a laptop shaped shell with no brain, so that then I can plug the phone shape shell into a 96GB, 8TB storage little box thats almost the size of phone anyway, or perhaps put a screen on that little box would be another one, so that I could have “true convergence” but where it had the 96GB ram, 8TB storage, and high end intel cpu superpower (librem 14 cpu is possibly enough but i guzzle ram).
This would also solve the societal pressure to use Waydroid because in my experience when a kid tells me to play even some sickness-level modern tech like the game Roblox, it can download on Aurora store on malware infested linux distro on the system76 machine and run inside Waydroid somehow doing Waydroid+gpu in a way that leaves the kid mouth watering for more powerful compute because mine runs faster than theirs despite them at first telling me to buy a normal phone and saying my hardware is weird and boring.
If liberux can actually pull off a 32GB phosh phone, even if they use malware drivers if they can create an environment of customer trust for formers librem 5 users i feel like there might be a strong draw there. It approaches what I described in the previous paragraph without actually being it. Why spend $4200 on a Librem 16 that’s already morally compromised by firmware jail so I dont come away thinking I out-governmented-the-government… if I can get a 32GB ram Phosh-convergence machine (who might also be only morally compromised at the firmware level (?), albeit perhaps in more places) and then buy some $100 or $200 microSD card for 2TB of space and slap it in there, and plug it into existing nexdock that I got with librem 5?
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I’m sure there is some Purism markup in there but I’m guessing the current outrageous memory prices dominate. I had been planning to throw Purism a bone this time around and get both SSDs from them, but I can’t even get the laptop for now and I’m way overdue to get one.
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Both.
Memory chip prices have tripled, even quadrupled, in the last few years - reportedly due to demand from running AI models i.e. more data centres, more computers therein.
If you are worried about Purism markup then obviously you can get the Base model and then upgrade the RAM / disk yourself. However it might be sensible to wait a few years before upgrading the RAM / disk unless you really need the higher amounts right now.
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Yeah or I could just take the 8TB nVME storage out of the aforementioned System76 mini pc and use it on the Librem 16. Admittedly its in two parts and one is standard 4TB the other is a bizarre shorter form factor nVME chip that is also 4TB.
But what’s the deal with Purism laptops discouraging hard drive swapping? The little system76 mini pc has one screw and then the bottom opens out as a door, and the nVME drive instead of screwed has a rotated gizmo and it comes right out. I’ve been actively swapping it playing with different chips in there. After doing that a lot I wanted to swap the Librem 14 likewise for a bit and it was a giant pain with like 15 screws and then you have to pop out a friction fit bottom plate!!! Why is that so much harder?
Does the Librem 16 have 16 screws instead of 14 or did they make it easier? I remember in college I had a thinkpad and the harddrive came out as a sled. I rotated between drives for windows, linux, whatever until after 10 years I broke the sled door. It had only 1 screw like the system76 mini pc does… It can be done on a laptop
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I imagine that basically no Purism customers have a Librem 16 laptop yet. So if you want to know whether it is easier or harder to swap RAM / disk on the Librem 16 as compared with the Librem 14, you would have to ask Purism.
Maybe it can be researched from product page. I just checked another thing! The Librem 16 has non-square right shift!!
I always sort of felt like Librem 14 right-shift key was maybe some sick form of vendor lock in. I had to change my habits not to use Right-Shift to deal with it. It looks like Librem 16 is probably much better in the picture, much more traditional, probably easy to switch to!!!
…unless if you already got used to the Librem 14 layout I guess…
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On the other hand my several years old system76 laptop doesn’t have an access door and a bunch of tiny screws have to be removed, but fewer than on the Librem 15. But I guess we have to be grateful we can get inside at all.
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Can you explain what you mean? Are you referring to “MAX” rather than to “Librem 16”? If so, yes, it does seem odd and what does a “Librem 16 Custom” say? even if it were ordered to a spec that matched one of the three standard configs?
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I refer to both as is: abusive and unethical.
Maybe it is a investor prerequisite.
You could try asking Purism if they could provide you one without the text in the order notes on the checkout page.
I’m very certain that Kyle had little to do with Phosh and its design direction. It was handed off to GNOME sometime around 2021 and Guido was and still is a major contributor to it.
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