Matt Devillier (MrChromebox) on this Reddit thread answered a bunch of questions about the Librem 14.
On the hinge issue:
Also, what design changes have been made to solve the hinge issues?
it’s a completely new design from a different partner/ODM. I’ve held it by the screen and flapped it until my arms got tired
In another reply:
the hinge issue on the 13v4 was, AIUI, limited to a single batch where the ODM changed the chassis mounts without our knowledge, and is one of the reasons why we are using a new partner to build the L14.
On why Thunderbolt wasn’t included:
Thunderbolt would have made this perfect!
TB is problematic on Comet Lake since it requires an extra chip. We debated on going with IceLake instead, which has TB built-in, but seems like a bit of a shit show still (Google canceled their ICL Chromebooks and is going straight to Tiger Lake it seems)
On video out:
In the tech specs HDMI is listed as 4k60hz but USB type c just mentions 4k. Does that mean we’ll only be able to get 4k30hz out of it?
the USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode will support 4Kp60 via both DP and HDMI adapters. The HDMI port uses a LSPCON (HDMI 2.0) like the Librem Mini does, so the L14 will be able to drive two 4Kp60 displays simultaneously
Can you use a USB-C dock from, let’s say Lenovo, to get 2 external monitors connected?
depends on resolution/refresh rate, and type of dock. USB-C Alt mode only has enough bandwidth for a single 4Kp60 display, or two 1080p displays. The L14 doesn’t support Thunderbolt (which is PCIe over USB-C, and has a lot more bandwidth), so you can’t use a TB dock with it.
On the disk drives:
How many nvme slots are there? 2? And 1 2.5” sata? So total of 3 drives possible?
… it’s going to be 2x m.2 slots
On Qubes:
Could you perchance discuss installing & using Qubes on the laptop? One thing I see in Qubes forums/boards/reddits/etc is people constantly asking what laptop to buy - you might consider putting up some how-to, documentation, etc for people to point to - might net you some extra sales, ala Project Sputnik. Speaking of which, is regaining Qubes certification something Purism is working towards on this laptop or in a future product out of curiosity?
We ensure that Qubes runs without issue on all of our devices out of the box, with either our standard coreboot/SeaBIOS firmware, or our Pureboot firmware. Installation isn’t any different than any other Linux distro really.
Qubes certification has a lot of IMO silly and unnecessary requirements that serve no purpose other than to keep the number of certified devices artificially low. But I need to update the Qubes HCL for all our current models with the latest firmware (something they require to be static for a period of time).