Hello fellows,
I’m currently looking in 13-14" laptops with no immediate needs for one but just because it’s exciting. I love my Dell XPS but I feel I should support companies with which I share more common views. I could make the effort to go a with a less attractive look (especially for bezels) but I don’t want to go wrong with hardware so what are your thoughts on Framework, Starlab, Purism, and System76? I’ll be running Arch and I tend to have a preference for Framework for now.
Do you have feedback (positive and negative) to share on any of these companies?
Thanks for the knowledge you’ll bring me. That’ll be extremely useful when time comes to go with a new machine.
Update 1: Still wonderful to be part of such a great community. Thanks for all the great feedback (looking for more :) ).
So far everyone is standing behind Framework. Anyone with a less positive experience or who would like to speak for the other companies?
Update 2: Thank you fellows for the time you’ve spent to share your honest feedback! I didn’t want to influence your inputs but you all confirmed the Framework picture I had in mind. It’s a piece of mind to read real world experience so thanks again. I was surprised to not see the system76 community speaks louder. Anyway, when time comes I will (virtually) push Framework shop’s door.
I have a framework, pretty happy with it - Arch installed without any hitches and runs well. Only downside is how long it took to go from deposit to actually paying/shipping.
I’ve been wanting a Framework so bad. When I start working again (which should be soon), I’m going to save up for one.
How long have you been waiting? Was it during the pandemic (when everyone was using this as an excuse)? Do you know if it seems to be a current issue?
If that’s something usual I’ll definitely avoid Framework. When I order a laptop it’s because I need a replacement very quickly for work.
I love my Framework. It may not feel as polished physically as the XPS. If you can find one in the wild to touch and try, I would recommend doing so.
They’re unfortunately harder to find in the wild than pokemons 😂 Have you experienced long delivery time as mentioned above?
While I’m yet to do it myself, I would suggest getting a Thinkpad T480 and upgrading its RAM. The reason you want a T480 is because it was the last Thinkpad to have user removable parts. One tip: when using eBay, make sure you filter out the T480s. The T480s is not the same as the T480 since it doesn’t have user removable parts.
Second the T480, it’s a great Linux laptop and very upgradable. If possible try to make sure it already has an NVMe or SATA M.2 in the main drive bay. Switching from a 2.5 requires an adapter board and different cables.
Thanks for the tip. I know a lot of people are going for Thinkpads and you’re specific recommendation may seem interesting but I’d like to support other companies like the ones I bought from so far (Toshiba, Lenovo, Dell, Vaio, Acer, PB, Razer) and I’d also like to build my own laptop from the start.
Of course. Just remember this when buying a laptop (and by extension a printer): FUCK HP!
I hate Lenovo and I have a Lenovo laptop. The company is shit but the laptops are great. I justify it by buying used.
I’ve been disappointed by them and as you can tell I’m not the kind of person to be married with a brand :D I may go back to them one day if there’s really one machine I want. Until then I’ll stay away from them. Also I really would like to support a company with a better philosophy (from my POV).
What parts other than one stick of RAM aren’t upgradeable on the t480s? The processor? I’ve seen screen swaps, touchpad swaps, keyboard, just about everything. I got one back in the summer, added a stick of RAM to get up to 16gb, it’s running at 3200mhz like the other one, and swapped in a new OEM battery. It’s been great. I also recently bought a e495 for around 60 bucks, it’s thicker and plastic-ey, but also a solid Linux machine running an AMD CPU. Are the newer t14s really that crippled in repairability?
I am currently reviving an T410 for my kids. I put an 250 GB SSD inside and the newest Linux Mint and play around with it now. I am still on 4 GB Ram, as I didn’t want to spend the 60€ to upgrade to 8 GB, yet.
It runs great. I can watch YouTube, browse the web and rip some of my CDs for my NAS and my Kids Audio Players with that sweet internal DVD drive. My guess is 60% of the people would not need more computing power. And this machine was released in 2010.
Yeah it is but it’s a pretty capable laptop. I’ve replaced mine with a Framework 11th gen for my daily use but my T480 is currently hosting 10 VMs for my homelab. It’s got the base CPU, i5-8250U, 64GB of RAM and a 4TB SSD and is plenty of horsepower. I really only got the Framework because I was excited about the product and company, not because I was unsatisfied with the T480. I highly recommend it.
Framework and System76 are both pretty good and user-serviceable. I know System76’s customer service is particularly really good.
They’re all aight, but avoid asus like the plague, they don’t last very long and have tons of incompatibilities with linux. I’ve only had mine for 3 years and it already needs a new mobo as the pci lanes for wifi and bluetooth suddenly died
If you’re willing to import, tuxedo computers is another great choice. I can personally vouch for framework but I’d caution if you’re looking for the 16, it’ll be a bit before they’re available. 13ish batches pre-ordered, with batch one shipping in a few weeks, it may take quite a bit to get. The 13 though is in stock and shouldn’t take too long to recieve
Edit: oh sorry, 13 inch is your preference. I’d strongly vouch for framework. I’d also say stay away from purism due to their scummy history on the phone if you care about that.
Thanks. TBH Purism is currently at the bottom (out) of my list based on what I’ve read but I’ve put it here to collect any feedback that would change my mind. A friend of mine has a not that good experience with Tuxedo hardware. But this is a sample 1 and I’ve read a lot of good stuff about them as well so…
Sure do, though not for all the claims I’ll make here as that was from me obsessively watching the purism forumns and reddit over the 5 or so years this was going on. They promised a phone which most people didn’t get for five years. When it shipped the specs were not great especially for the already pricy cost they had it at. This, after quite heavily suggesting they were nearly good to go. When it came close to the end of waiting, they added a second option (no phones were in hands yet) to upgrade their order, at a cost, to skip the line and get it quicker. Suggesting that if it didn’t sell the company couldn’t ship the original either after taking money both from a crowdfunding campaign and their site. Though a few were eventually able to refund, they sneakily changed their policy to include “no refunds” when at time of purchase they stated clearly refunds would be available at request. There’s also been an issue with their laptops which were advertised as fully FOSS, etirely non-proprietary before eventually shipping with some proprietary software. All around, their customer service is terrible and their responces to allagations and critisism has been childish threats and legal attacks. All around bad group.
here’s some blog posts and an article:
https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2019/10/the-sad-saga-of-purism-and-the-librem-5-part-1 (read all 3 parts)
https://anarc.at/blog/2020-07-13-not-recommending-purism/
Here’s Luis Rossman (Not always correct on what he reports, but by my memory quite good here):
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk
Piped - https://piped.adminforge.de/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKegmu0V75s
Piped - https://piped.adminforge.de/watch?v=wKegmu0V75s
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=-IjUryQOlgk
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=wKegmu0V75s
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
