Hey
First of all i’d like to introduce myself, my name is Filip and i am 23.
I am becoming more and more interested in the free open-source software as i realised proprietary software and proprietary games consumes my soul :-).
So i downloaded PureOS, unfortunately it is not full free software here, because after i downloaded PureOS i realised my wifi adapter is proprietary.
I can of course get external wi-fi adapter… I am aware that proprietary hardware and software spies on me.
However i wonder why Librem laptops are so expensive. If it’s librem software, and uses free open-source software and exotic hardware, i would think that laptopts would be much cheaper than proprietary apple macs or windowses.
Another thing is if every intel processor has engine management, how come librem laptops use intel processors without them??
I am of course interested in buying librem laptop because as you described they don’t have anything proprietary (right?) however im not IT guy or something and i can’t afford this. I have generic Acer laptop that probably tracks me a lot, has proprietary hardware.
So my question is why open source free software based laptops have such a price?? Do you need to pay extra for free software???
Another thing that i wonder is gnome desktop environment. I like gnome of course, but i read bad stuff about systemd on internet, that many people are against this. I am not really into technical stuff, however i am always aware that if gnome is red-hat i am always aware that even though i use pureos, my activity can still go to google…
Hi there! Largely what you are seeing in terms of price has to do with the economies of scale. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have priority when it come to manufacturing. They buy at such bulk that they literally get parts and component cheaper.
Purism by extension is small and does not get these deals. On top of that their small team is dong all the R&D and development. All things considered the prices are very fair On top of that your money goes to helping a good cause.
Yeah i understand that if you buy in bulk you get cheaper prices.
However nowadays people prefers to buy cheap stuff. Cheap stuff wins.
I’d say making librem laptops more pricey than apple macbooks or windows laptops probably not gonna make them popular.
However i think open-source free software should spread much more and more around people.
To add to what @2disbetter said, Purism does a lot of work in freeing proprietary hardware. They are working to undo proprietary drivers and turn it into free and open-source software, but that takes the time and effort of smart people. You mention the Intel CPUs - Purism has been working hard (and making good progress!) on removing the Intel Management Engine without compromising the functionality of the CPU. They are also doing groundbreaking work with the Librem 5 by making more free and open source software for mobile phone functionality, which previously either didn’t exist or wasn’t in a great state. So while they don’t benefit from economies of scale, as mentioned already, they also need funds to drive their research and development teams. When you buy from Purism, you are contributing to the development of open source software.
It’s legal for them to remove the management engine. I think they have had to limit some of the information they make totally public, but you can begin diving down the rabbit hole here and here and here
I have always wanted to use Arch Linux and build my own pc based on AMD processors…
However at the moment i know that there are better solutions.
I am glad that something like puri.sm exists, however i am not 100% convinced that it is safe. I sense google everywhere, you know.
But thank you very much.
As soon as i have some funds i may just get the laptop. I used to play windows games a lot but i realised that i spend days and days on them and i don’t learn anything new. And it is proprietary too…
Iv used computer to play games for a long time, but it’s not the way to go.
For me the correct thing has been to support Puri.sm full on. But I also believe that proprietary software has it’s place, and believe the two can exist peacefully together.
That said Steam has been doing amazing work with Linux, and most of the games you play can probably run now on Linux at native speeds. I’ve been very surprised. The Librem is a VERY competent little laptop.
I have my own personal disregards towards valve and steam.
I don’t trust gabe hewell, i don’t trust valve, and i don’t wanna have steam running on my laptop full time. I believe they track you lots and send data about you to google.
Another thing is games you get on steam aren’t even yours and are worthless.
Saying so i feel like i’d rather not play steam games even if they’re amazing. Because my philosphy we have one life and i can either spend my time playing steam games or learn something new about open-source. Because i wanna use open-source free software full time.
However i have played game runescape for very long time, and it’s hard for me to quit at this point… However i really want to :-).
But i believe that game should shape our brains and teach new things, modern games are mainly about killng others.
I hear you on steam. It is one of those things. Steam, like them or hate them, is doing a good thing for Linux, in that is working very hard to legitimize Linux as a viable solution for many people.
Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple need market shifts in interests and spending. Things like Steam working on Linux help to further that end. Granted not nearly as much as buying a Librem laptop does, but I digress.
Yeah the thing that i liked was when i was watching gabe newell talking about linux gaming on some conference (although i watched it on internet), he said linux gaming is the future of gaming.
Althought lots of people would say he’s crazy, i agree with him.
I don’t like windows games.
I also heard that valve got into linux because they ported left for dead for linux and they noticed it ran better than it did on windows.
However let’s be honest CEO of steam has 1,2b dollars and maybe he can make linux more popular, i am not fan of using open source free GNU/linux distro and play proprietary games.
Although i do it with runescape, i can’t help it at this point.
First, there is no problem with games on Windows. When i was mentioning that proprietary software is not all bad, I was speaking about games. There is no need for a video game to be open source and free. On the contrary, play them sand boxed and without internet, where possible, and you circumvent most of the potential problems.
That Left 4 Dead ran better on Linux has nothing to do with which OS is better and everything to do with the driver optimizations and game optimizations. Direct X is a fantastic graphics library, and nothing comes close to it. There is a reason why games are made for Windows.
There is problem with games on windows, and it is very big problem that i have realised.
Games on windows are poor and primitive. you mainly get amazing graphics nowadays. All most popular windows games make you stupid. They are created to get you addicted.
This is what i realised, developer makes a game for windows, it does addict you you play it all the time. Then they design it to make as much more money as possible which results in developer having millions dollars a month while gamers that play their games are still poor.
Windows games suck your energy from you, you use yourself to play windows game to make somebody 5000 times richer than you are.
This is why open-source free is the way to go for me, because these games are not designed to make profits unlike to windows games.
Windows games are made for profits not for people. You spend years to play league of legends because some businesmen made e-sport thing to make much cash on naive kids and others Kids play windows games that force you to kill so you can progress and i don’t think it shapes their brains in a good direction.
Read books instead of playing windows games. This is my philosphy
I wouldn’t mind the exorbitant price if the Laptops were good quality. After 3 months use the WIFI doesn’t work anymore, the rubber foots are all gone and the fans blasting at full speed issues is really getting to me. Future buyers should beware and think twice before investing that kind of money ‘for a good cause’. So far Purism hasn’t demonstrated any intentions to fix many of the problems its customers are having. A search history of threads mentioning these issues will show you just that.
I get that you might be frustrated but coming on to a forum and just blasting the company doesn’t usually go well. For one, how do we know you didn’t let your laptop bake in the sun and the wireless radio burnt out? How do we know you didn’t throw it around and the rubber feet came off? How do we know if you live in a place with a high ambient tempature and the fan aren’t screaming out of necessity?
Your frustration about a software issue is subjective and to be respected. However, if you belive in the cause why do you want sabotage it without at least giving us all the clear details? If you are genuinely concerned that the hardware is a rip off then please do us the favor on telling us about it without it seeming like a simple ax you just wish to grind. (I say this recognizing that thousands of laptops have been sold and the general concensus doesn’t match yours at all. Myself included. )
I wanted laptop and bought one with two graphics card nvidia geforce 940 that i dont really need because i play old school games
and i paid for windows 10 as well i overpaid at least 200 dollars…
Now im gonna get laptop/pc without windows, but when its gonna happen ;/…
Sounds like there are other issues at play here other than just games.
As for why the laptops are expensive, I’m not going to rehash what has already been said. Maybe read books about business. You want secure laptops ? The costs of RnD and safe, private products are obviously going to be passed down to the consumer.
Otherwise, if you want to spend less money, you can, and still get good security through more effort. For example, my gaming pc has no personal information on it. I only use it for games, nothing else.
If you’re really interested in security, then you wouldn’t rely on a Librem laptop. There are a lot of things you can do to be more secure digitally.
I don’t have a Librem mostly because it doesn’t suit my needs. Though I am thinking about getting the key.
