[talk] puri.sm laptops - Too good to be true?

[Charles Sprickman]

> On Oct 5, 2017, at 2:11 PM, Isaac (.ike) Levy <ike at blackskyresearch.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 5, 2017, at 01:05 PM, Brian Cully wrote:
>> 
>>> On 5-Oct-2017, at 11:40, Isaac (.ike) Levy <ike at blackskyresearch.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hey All,
>>> 
>>> Has anyone heard anything good/bad about the laptops from Purism
>>> <http://puri.sm>?
>>> 
>>> I can't believe my eyes they look too cool.  Like nearly every aspect of
>>> the laptop design.
>> 
>> 	And not too pricey. If I hadn’t just bought a new laptop, I’d be eyeing one of these seriously.
>> 
>>> Big scary question marks for use as a *BSD laptop: Sleep/Resume?
>>> graphics not sucking? etc...
>> 
>> 	My experience with Intel HD graphics on FreeBSD has not been particularly good, even with TrueOS, whereas it works pretty flawlessly on Ubuntu. The other thing is the usage of the Atheros WiFi chipset, which was super bad for me over USB, although this at least is PCI, and my understanding is that the support there is a lot better.
>> 
>> 	One last thing, for me at least, would be just how bad the touchpad is. I’ve never had a good touchpad outside of the Mac laptop lines.
>> 
>> 	Thanks for the heads-up, though. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this.
>> 
>> -bjc
> 
> This fella, Eric McCorkle, seems to have been using one for FreeBSD last
> summer: 
> 
> https://ericmccorkleblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/freebsd-librem-update/
> 
> Some year old comments on the trackpad etc...  nothing damning.  Boy I'd
> love one in my hands for a day to scope the reality of the hardware
> before I bought one…

There seems to be lots of controversy about the claims this company has made.

Are the points in this older article now moot or not?

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2960524/laptop-computers/why-linux-enthusiasts-are-arguing-over-purisms-sleek-idealistic-librem-laptops.html <https://www.pcworld.com/article/2960524/laptop-computers/why-linux-enthusiasts-are-arguing-over-purisms-sleek-idealistic-librem-laptops.html>
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed <https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Purism-Librem-Still-Blobbed>

And having to go back to 2008 for true Stallman-approved FreeDom:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2879086/the-free-software-foundation-loves-this-laptop-but-you-wont.html <https://www.pcworld.com/article/2879086/the-free-software-foundation-loves-this-laptop-but-you-wont.html>

There is a rant out there somewhere that I read recently that without ditching proprietary BIOS/UEFI/blobs, this laptop is no more secure than anything else on the market.

Hey, have you considered a MBP? :)

Charles

> 
> Rocket-
> .ike
> 
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