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Station X Linux Machines

189 points by infodroid 9y ago

phaemon 9y ago
Is there anyone here who's actually used one of these?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- infodroid 9y ago
  I read that they use the same suppliers that are used by US-based System76 and other Linux-focused vendors, so no surprises there. There is a video review from Quidsup up on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhpPsktOZFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhpPsktOZFw
- sspiff 9y ago
  No, but I can tell they're just rebranded Clevo builds. These machines have very decent specs and are easy to service and upgrade, but at the cost a of very low quality build with regards to the laptop case itself. There are plenty of other brands that offer the same kind of Clevo laptops with Linux, the best known of which is system76. Basically, these are just the same Clevo machines you can buy with any Clevo reseller, but with Linux installed for marketing differentiation, and a significant mark up in pricing.
  - wiz21c 9y ago
    I thought your statement was rather aggressive (you basically say that the linux brand is used to bump the price), until I saw this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevo I hope the people from System76 or StationX will be able to show that their added value is a little more than installing some linux image... (I was considering buying one of those, but your statement makes me hesitate)
    - sspiff 9y ago
      Sure, but implied in their Linux branding of the laptops is a promise of testing their configurations with Linux. So you are paying for a promise that the system will be compatible with Linux, I suppose. If these things interest you, you should definitely take a look at other Clevo resellers in your country, and compare the pricing to help you decide whether the added value of this promise is worth the increased retail price.
    - freedomben 9y ago
      Definitely check out System76's response to your question of showing their added value. I totally agreed with you, and that post turned me around. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refreshes_ubuntu_linux_laptops_with/ddvcx45/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refr...
      - sspiff 9y ago
        That's interesting, I'd not seen this comment before. So the good thing about System76 is that they can gather up the Linux users buying their products, and use the volume of those combined sales to give Linux users a voice with upstream manufacturers like Sager and Clevo.
    - torpcoms 9y ago
      I think it is probably: * a guarantee, and support for running Linux * UK-based customer support, rather than ROC/Taiwan-based * maybe component selection that avoids certain hardware with bad drivers?
  - torpcoms 9y ago
    Any idea what ODM Purism <puri.sm> uses for their components? This is exactly the sort of thing I find interesting.
    - sspiff 9y ago
      Sadly, no. I've tried to find out but couldn't find any clues. As far as I can tell, they're using their own custom built casing. It definitely looks much better built than the Clevo machines, but I've not yet have been to get my hands on one and take a closer look.
  - markbnj 9y ago
    As a system76 gazelle owner I agree with this. Nice display, great job on the drivers and system software, horrible build quality on the case, terrible keyboard, terrible fit around the trackpad, worst trackpad buttons I've ever seen. I've been developing on this for over a year and it's been ok, but the quality isn't anywhere near what you should be getting for the price point.
jabl 9y ago
> We are Linux advocates who believe in providing you the most free and open devices to create your most important work. Does that mean they have a disabled/cleaned ME like the purism machines? Or what does "free and open" mean in this case?
- tankenmate 9y ago
  To quote Fawlty Towers, "Don't mention the graphics card!"
  - toyg 9y ago
    GPUs seem to be the only remaining issue with OEM Linux laptops. I was almost ready to buy a Purism Librem last year after the sad MBP announcements, but I got cold feet because of that. I wish someone had the money to pay one of these companies to polish linux drivers and ship some decent GPUs.
    - tankenmate 9y ago
      Well most Radeon cards work great with open source drivers, there is still the issue of closed source firmware however. But at least now the kernel drivers (kms, drm) are open source, the GL drivers (mesa) are open as well for Radeon. For some Radeon cards they perform better using the open source drivers than they do with the closed source ones.
- Shelnutt2 9y ago
  On the "free and open" front, their "B-29 Superfortress" linux desktop only has options for Nvidia graphics cards. Would have been nice to see some AMD options in support for their open source work.
  - madez 9y ago
    The "free and open" part is lying for the sake of PR.
caterama 9y ago
Looks similar to https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/. I got the 17" Kudu for work. Honestly, I'm now aware that a 17" screen on a laptop is just too impractically big, but the hardware has been great.
- marcoperaza 9y ago
  Having a big screen is so nice. The 17” MacBook Pro is the second best computer I ever had, after my current Thinkpad T530. If I had to buy a new computer today (hopefully not, as my Thinkpad is still going strong at five years old), I’d probably go for the P70. I don’t mind having a big and heavy laptop though. I carry it in a backpack, and a few pounds more or less on my back is pretty insignificant.
  - randlet 9y ago
    Yeah having a 17" laptop is brilliant with the caveat that they're kind of terrible on planes. I'm using a 14" ThinkPad these days and miss the extra real estate, although I've adapted to it over time.
    - marcoperaza 9y ago
      Good point. Now that you mention it, I do remember trying and giving up on using it on a plane. It’s not a big deal for me personally because I get motion sick on planes so I usually just take a couple of Dramamine and sleep through the whole flight.
- vidarh 9y ago
  A 17" laptop is great for working from the couch, and that's what I use it for. It's not so great as an actual portable computer, so I've coupled it with an 11" that I carry with me for meetings etc...
- alex_duf 9y ago
  14" is perfect size for me. Not 13", not 15" but 14". I hope it will become easier to find in the future.
chillydawg 9y ago
Screen bezel :(
Coding_Cat 9y ago
Price-wise they seem quite competitive on paper. I'm curious as to what the build quality & peripherals are like. In my experience the real difference between a regular and top-of-the-line laptop is in the small things. They're also lacking a 4k laptop, which I would highly recommend to anyone used to working on the road. (or who has to show of work to clients in person).
- mnw21cam 9y ago
  Price-wise, I got a zenbook for 2/3 the price, with a 3200x1800 screen (instead of 1920x1080), a slower CPU, same RAM, larger SSD, most other details the same. It's a better fit for my needs, and runs Linux perfectly. I agree completely about the screen - a decent HiDPI screen is quite wonderful. Also, I wouldn't want any of the distribution options they offer to pre-load. And I wouldn't want a pre-loaded OS anyway. I'm not trying to discourage a worthy goal, but these are some of the issues that this company has to overcome.
  - freedomben 9y ago
    Having done the "buy a Windows laptop and load linux on it" thing for many years and many generations, I think I'm done. I have now had a Dell preloaded with Ubuntu and a System76 and I don't think I'll ever go back. The Dell has special drivers tho for backlight and other things, so loading a different distro is a little more work than a System76 is.
    - majewsky 9y ago
      Does System76 work on upstreaming these special drivers, or are you just stuck with whatever they slap on the disk if you want all hardware to work?
      - freedomben 9y ago
        Yes, they do specifically work on upstreaming the drivers into the Linux kernel. I found this post from System76 to be really interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refreshes_ubuntu_linux_laptops_with/ddvcx45/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refr...
lerie82 9y ago
Just buy and powerwash a Chromebook.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  Seriously I wonder why not this? I understand if you're looking for a portable workstation or something of that performance why not... but for an ultra-portable little dev machine. And it would be far cheaper, too, no? (I've liked what System76 has done, but even then I probably wouldn't spring for the Galago as opposed cheaper Chromebook unless I were jumping up to one of their other workhorses)
rplnt 9y ago
Why the keyboard layout? End next to up key? Insert above backspace? What's wrong with the classic 2x3 block? Another issue I have is with the spacing between F keys. Looks like an afterthought to Fn+? keys. Not to mention there is not a single clear picture of the keyboard on the product page... https://stationx.rocks/products/manjaro-special-edition-spitfire https://stationx.rocks/products/manjaro-special-edition-spit...
- diggan 9y ago
  Regarding "End next to up key", it's the same as on the Carbon X1 which to be honest, is kind of comfortable. I'm using the arrow keys to scroll on pages when reading, and when I want to skip, the keys for that is right next to it.
  - rplnt 9y ago
    At pictures I see PgUp/PgDown keys next to up arrow. Dell has it the same way I think. It's a bit different to an End key, but even then, the biggest issue was that it's only the End there. No Home on the other side.
    - diggan 9y ago
      Sorry, I misread "Page Up/Down" in your comment for some reason. End key is a bit more mysterious and that the is no Home is also weird.
- rst 9y ago
  Product customization screen has multiple keyboard layouts; "USA English" is not the default, and probably not what's in the shots (though I'm not sure where you can see what it does look like)...
  - rplnt 9y ago
    I didn't mean layout in that sense, rather how keys are laid out.
- 9y ago
madez 9y ago
Intel backdoor included.
eeZah7Ux 9y ago
The animation made me cringe.
- shusson 9y ago
  I don't understand who they are targeting with it
  - teamhappy 9y ago
    I don't think they understand it either.
  - ddorian43 9y ago
    there are meme geeks out there
sneak 9y ago
A “MacBook Pro killer”... with a 1920x1080 display. Right.
bwindels 9y ago
> We create drop-dead gorgeous machines - designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. Only linux? Seems like a weird limitation... or am I understanding this wrong?
- icebraining 9y ago
  I think they mean "only designed and customized for Linux", not that it can't run other stuff. Essentially the same as 99% of laptops, except for Linux instead of Windows :)
  - torpcoms 9y ago
    Although as someone mentioned below, they are rebranded Clevo machines, and really were designed to run Windows first. Station X is just offering a guarantee that they will run Linux properly.
    - oeuviz 9y ago
      Be reminded that by looking at the outside you do not know what's inside.
  - freedomben 9y ago
    Agreed. I think it means, "We only test and install Linux, and don't bother with other distros. Also only pick hardware that has linux support without considering whether other OSes support that hardware"
- 8draco8 9y ago
  Don't want to sound rude but: "created"? Or just resold whatever Compal/Clevo are building with hand picked some components like WiFi card that happen to have drivers in Linux kernel?
  - mariusmg 9y ago
    "just resold whatever Compal/Clevo are building with hand picked some components like WiFi card that happen to have drivers in Linux kernel" Ooohh...bingo :)
jventura 9y ago
It seems quite good but I'm very intolerant of 16:9 screens. It's a no-go for me..
- torpcoms 9y ago
  Agreed, I will take the wide-screen ratio god intended (16:10) any day of the week over 16:9.
sleepychu 9y ago
> Or are we dealing with a an Arch or Gentoo stalwart? Regardless, our machines have you covered. Might be worth fixing your typo :-)
osullivj 9y ago
I had been planning to replace my faithful 5yr old Samsung Ultrabook with a Dell XPS. But I like the idea of buying from a UK supplier based in Bletchley Park and using a lot of WWII branding. I do need a win32 dev env, but I guess I could run Windows inside a VM.
- toyg 9y ago
  > using a lot of WWII branding Yeah tbh that's the only thing that puts me off a bit. War is war, I'd rather not glorify it; it might be a necessary evil on occasions, but I'd rather not be reminded of that every day. Then again, I'm not British. Still, I would expect the subset of potential buyers for geeky machines not to massively overlap the nationalistic subset of the British population, so to me it looks like poor marketing overall.
  - chrisper 9y ago
    There is so much cultural stuff that appeared because of war. Do you avoid those things as well?
    - toyg 9y ago
      "Cultural stuff" I can choose to consume at will. The tools I use every day for my work, that's another matter.
  - fareesh 9y ago
    It's entirely possible to be fond of the branding and still not glorify war
  - osullivj 9y ago
    Being British I love the branding, but I am something of a WWII obsessive. WWII, the Battle of Britain, "the few", fight them on the beaches etc is a huge part of national identity in the UK. But it seems to me that WWII flavoured branding could be a huge marketing mistake in the EU territories Station X is targeting: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands.
gravypod 9y ago
The only laptop I would consider upgrading to from my Thinkpad X220 would either be a modern Thinkpad x270 (just for a hardware upgrade because I like the form factor) or to something that provides a similar keyboard, docking, and modern-ish hardware. Most of my work happens over SSH, my laptop is currently fast enough for Netflix, email, and web browsing. I'm capped at 2 1920x1080 monitors but this is livable. I think if someone took the old X220 generation Thinkpads, upgraded the internals, and kept the keyboard and docking that they would sell like hotcakes.
- bitonico 9y ago
  Somebody _is_ kind of doing that: https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ . They also mod x220s but the mod is more invasive since they require a different screen bezel. I recently got an x62 and it's great, although you must put some effort into making linux work smoothly on it and making the screen brighter. But all in all I am extremely happy with it.
  - gravypod 9y ago
    Where do you go about buying this?
ulkesh 9y ago
The reason these look similar to System76 is because they are the exact same Clevo chassis. The bezels are awful, but I give credit to System76 and Station X and any other that works to sell and maintain Linux machines. My next Linux laptop may be from one of these companies if they can work with Clevo to stop making the screen bezels so horrendously large.
jlebrech 9y ago
what i'd like is a portable "mainframe" you can remote into from older (or cheaper) machines, something you can still in a backpack along with a chromebook.
partycoder 9y ago
I dislike the website. The reasons are: 1. "Beautiful machines" is the first point being made. This is superficial. 2. "All distros welcome". Turns out that installing a distro is the least of my concerns when it comes to a laptop. 3. The first thing you notice is this video with the multiethnic group of people from which one of them is at the front as well as happier/dancing. This is inconsistent and weird. What is the message being communicated with this? How is it relevant? Sell me a goddamn laptop instead. Put a picture of a laptop or something. In order to be constructive, what I would rather emphasize is: laptops are hardware. The intended audience here are tech enthusiasts. I would rather speak about hardware specs, or something distinctive about the hardware, compatibility, the ergonomics... post a benchmark. Something that is actually better than "beautiful laptops" and a awkward video. This is common sense. This is how a system is sold: https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ . Note: I do not own one and I am not affiliated with that company, just making a point. Then... just a reminder: most laptops are potentially a Linux laptop.
- toyg 9y ago
  > Turns out that installing a distro is the least of my concerns when it comes to a laptop. Man, how times have changed. Linux working half-decently on a laptop used to be the holy grail of opensource fans. Nowadays, thanks to Ubuntu and friends, chances are that most of it will just work, regardless of hardware. This is a massive achievement and it's not really as promoted as it should be.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - partycoder 9y ago
    Well, true. It can be challenging to install some distros, especially if the default configuration doesn't give you a working network interface. And while it can be solved, it's by no means a desirable first Linux experience.
nl 9y ago
Or get a Xiaomi Mi Air and get a better laptop for less money. Only downside is the low maximum RAM.
jlebrech 9y ago
If any of you visit eastern europe or countries where pirating a copy of windows is common practice, you can get linux laptops everywhere, sometimes the same machine is discounted because it's a display unit with freeDOS (who'd buy a machine you can't test)
upofadown 9y ago
> designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. So no BSD then?
- freedomben 9y ago
  I interpret that to mean, "We only focus on whether this thing works well with Linux." So BSD may work fine, but YMMV.
kkarp 9y ago
Next reseller of the same OEM laptop ordered somewhere in China. Check the right side of this laptop: https://stationx.rocks/products/spitfire https://stationx.rocks/products/spitfire and compare with Galago pro: https://system76.com/laptops/galago https://system76.com/laptops/galago sides: https://screenshots.firefox.com/0I2YsDmIvbKuYbr3/stationx.rocks https://screenshots.firefox.com/0I2YsDmIvbKuYbr3/stationx.ro... and https://d1vhcvzji58n1j.cloudfront.net/assets/products/galp3/ports-right_1280-32d6cdd4b5.jpg https://d1vhcvzji58n1j.cloudfront.net/assets/products/galp3/... and I've seen this model at least on two other resellers.
- PleaseHelpMe 9y ago
  Thank you ! This is gold. People dont notice this easily and upvote this post.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    Downvoted because: see siblings.
- babaganoosh89 9y ago
  Seems like they’re dreaming if they expect someone to buy an $1000+ laptop from a company they’ve never heard of.
  - freedomben 9y ago
    To some extent, yes. But the demo that I occupy (male, 30s, software developer, linux enthusiast, seeker of high quality hardware that is highly compatible with linux), is desperate and hungry for this.
    - mijoharas 9y ago
      Yes, to be honest, I'm quite excited by it. If only they did plain arch linux (just hard drives partitioned sensibly and graphics drivers installed, maybe X installed) and a nice thin 15 inch version...
tluyben2 9y ago
Anyone knows what the real battery life does on these because 5 hours is not very good and usually a seller is optimistic.
edent 9y ago
Entroware also resell these laptops - at a better price - https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops All I want from my next laptop is to be powered via USB-C. I'm sick of dragging around multiple different chargers for my gadgets.
- larelogio 9y ago
  Powered by USB? Isn't that a different class of machine? Apple has the Book/Air but not the Pro.
alvil 9y ago
It starts to be wrong with Linux.
dre85 9y ago
Are they intentionally trying to optimize bezel real estate? Like for people who add a lot of post-its to the side of their screens?
- snorremd 9y ago
  If Linux people are known for anything it's their love of post-it notes on the side of their screen /s. But yeah. If I wanted a "gorgeous Linux laptop" I would buy a Dell XPS 13". Dell actually puts some work into making their own hardware and they upstream drivers and other stuff so the XPS actually works pretty well with Linux.
  - dre85 9y ago
    I actually have a xps13 dual booting Ubuntu and Windows. It's gorgeous, fast and portable. The only thing that sucks is the track pad, but I mainly just dock it anyway so it doesn't annoy me too often.
dorfsmay 9y ago
I find it funny how a copy of a Mac is necessarily beautiful (and so original)! Anyway, no track point so I'll just skip!
dkersten 9y ago
Ugh, another wannabe macbook. If I want a mac, I'll just buy one. Please give me a good quality linux laptop that isn't trying to be a macbook.
qubex 9y ago
Aside: Station X was the wartime codename for the Bletchley Park facility where (amongst others) Alan Turing worked on breaking German Enigma-enciphered traffic and Tommy Flowers built the Colossus electronic calculator for breaking encrypted teleprinter codes (Geheimscriber). All the laptops are named after WW2-era fighter planes. The desktop is named after a long-range wartime strategic bomber.
peterisza 9y ago
"Battery life: up to 5 hours". Not a MacBook Pro killer at all.
- JustSomeNobody 9y ago
  I read that and came to say the same. Not sure if this is because of Linux power management or the hardware itself. Either way I don't consider any laptop with "up to 5 hours" battery life an option anymore. I keep laptops longer and batteries degrade over the years.
qwerty456127 9y ago
How are these compared to Purism?
zx2c4 9y ago
The way to attract Linux users is to tempt them away from their Thinkpads. The way to do that is to offer a laptop with a trackpoint, this little red dot: https://www.google.com/search?q=trackpoint&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=trackpoint&tbm=isch
- hateduser2 9y ago
  Never understood the appeal of this thing.. tried it once to move the mouse and it was just so slow and awkward.. hardly seemed to work at all.. why do people like this? I really don’t get it myself.. is it for something besides moving the mouse? The thing seems pretty bad for that purpose.. maybe to move he mouse in small increments? Would love an explanation because I absolutely don’t get it myself.. pls help!
  - jack_pp 9y ago
    Did you try it on an actual thinkpad? I have a dell with a trackpoint and it's nowhere near as accurate. The appeal is that your fingers don't ever need to leave the homerow and also working from your lap on a bus for example is much easier since your hand doesn't have room to move to get to the trackpad
    - dagw 9y ago
      Agreed. Used to have an IBM Thinkpad with a trackpoint and loved it. Then I got first a Dell and later an HP laptop with trackpoints and could never get used to either of them. They just didn't work anywhere near as well as my old Thinkpad. I cannot really articulate the difference, but it was massive.
    - lenkite 9y ago
      I think its because on Thinkpads, the trackpad is rather terrible, so you are forced to use the trackpoint if you want quick, trouble-free movement without a mouse. On the macbook, the trackpad is gorgeously smooth, you don't need to leave the homerow in order to move the cursor - can do any movement with either thumb.
  - 9y ago
jorgemf 9y ago
"By Linux nerds for Linux nerds." and all the people in the picture are guys with glasses a couple of man from different nationalities. Thanks for the stereotype. Women in tech are going to be very proud of this image.
- walsk 9y ago
  I'm sorry (and I'm so called woman in tech, if any), but shouldn't girls worry about WomenInTech trend? If everyone makes you a way because you're a Woman, not a good engineer - is there anything good about this? Who cares about the picture, if these guys make nice laptops?
  - mitjak 9y ago
    I'm not a woman but I think you're misunderstanding. It's about fair representation, not special treatment because you're a woman. Assuming that's a promo video, it's under-represented.
    - slantyyz 9y ago
      The under-represented party in that video is the hardware. Humans (regardless of whether they are male, female or other) are over-represented in that video and they add no useful information to prospective buyers.
  - jorgemf 9y ago
    I care because they are promoting an image that is not true. And you as a woman (I am not) should care about it too. Because the picture means that only men, regardless their nationality, can be linux nerds. I would be offended if I were a girl who is a linux nerd. The same way they added 4 nationalities, they could have added a woman. Because they didn't choose 4 random guys and get 4 different nationalities by chance.
  - vertex-four 9y ago
    When everything a person sees says "people who are part of this community are men", it's driving women away from that community. When women visit my hackspace, they tend not to come back once they realise I'm the only other woman there and the culture is reasonably masculine. It sucks to feel like you don't belong. Ensuring that as many interested people as possible feel like they belong should be something that any subset of society thinks about, especially when publishing materials aimed at a broad audience. The issue, for the record, isn't a single material. If there wasn't a problem in the first place, there'd be nothing to criticise here, except for it feeling a bit out of place - the fact that not many people feel a bit odd about a marketing material targeted towards "Linux nerds" that only features men is a small piece evidence for said problem.
Too 9y ago
"All distros covered " = No distro really fully covered. The world doesn't need another random laptop which you might be able to install Linux on. What's needed is a Linux laptop that just works(tm) - all the time, every time, with the most common peripherals.
dajohnson89 9y ago
is 8gb of ram really enough these days? I know for my development and multitasking I'd feel underpowered with 16gb, but 16 is at least a decent baseline.
snvzz 9y ago
I had to close within seconds of dealing with this web design, to keep my sanity. Adding that to the pushing of one distribution over the others... way to utterly misunderstand your target market. I doubt they'll be selling many. Morons, the bunch of them.
sandworm101 9y ago
Any company trying to make it's name in the Linux market has to field stuff at lower pricepoints. I can buy a perfectly good Acer netbook for 300$ and install Ubuntu in a matter of minutes. If you cannot do small and cheap, the thing that Linux can do better than anyone else, you aren't going to win over many people.
- vidarh 9y ago
  The margins in the low end PC laptop market are so narrow that it's a crazy place to aim for if you're a small player.
  - sandworm101 9y ago
    But people looking to test out a new company/os want cheap. They will come back later once confidant. Smaller/cheaper generally also means greater battery life.
    - vidarh 9y ago
      But will they come back looking for something more expensive? I'm not sure there's any money aiming for the market that buys cheap. On the other hand enthusiast vendors like e.g. PC Specialist in the UK have survived for many years selling PC's in the price segment these guys are going after, because frankly for some of the models you could survive as a small company on a few dozen a month, while you might have to sell 10x-20x as many units to make similar margins to cover salaries and sales costs for lower priced units.
dirtyqwerty 9y ago
Wow, so much dudebro. That animated gif is killing me.
albertzeyer 9y ago
It says "MacBook Pro killer". Is there an option to have a high-resolution screen (e.g. 2880 x 1800, like Retina)? All I found was Full HD IPS 1920 x 1080.
linopolus 9y ago
> Gorgeous Linux laptops First thing I noticed on these pictures, was the ugly sticker left side underneath the keyboard. Sorry, but such trifles got nothing to do with gorgeous. Also, black camera frame, huge display bezel, and non-centered touchpads are, imho, a nogo if you wanna call it gorgeous.
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  I prefer the touchpad not to be in centre. It does not make any sense. It's like putting your mouse in the middle of your desk, instead of the right or left where you can actually hold it properly.
ratsimihah 9y ago
The marketing feels so try-hard. Do you need to shit on Macbook because there's nothing to sell otherwise? So passive aggressive.
dingo_bat 9y ago
> designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. So have they blocked installation of windows in some manner, a la Chromebook?
karmakaze 9y ago
Is there an option to have a '\' key where that weird shaped Enter key is?
lowlevel 9y ago
Love the video ad but its pretty hard for me to consider buying one of these. I want on site repair/replacement... not 'user serviceable' try to fix it yourself... my last three HP laptops were all over $2500 and all needed on-site service at some point.

189 points by infodroid 9y ago

phaemon 9y ago

Is there anyone here who's actually used one of these?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
infodroid 9y ago
I read that they use the same suppliers that are used by US-based System76 and other Linux-focused vendors, so no surprises there. There is a video review from Quidsup up on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhpPsktOZFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhpPsktOZFw
sspiff 9y ago
No, but I can tell they're just rebranded Clevo builds. These machines have very decent specs and are easy to service and upgrade, but at the cost a of very low quality build with regards to the laptop case itself. There are plenty of other brands that offer the same kind of Clevo laptops with Linux, the best known of which is system76. Basically, these are just the same Clevo machines you can buy with any Clevo reseller, but with Linux installed for marketing differentiation, and a significant mark up in pricing.
- wiz21c 9y ago
  I thought your statement was rather aggressive (you basically say that the linux brand is used to bump the price), until I saw this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevo I hope the people from System76 or StationX will be able to show that their added value is a little more than installing some linux image... (I was considering buying one of those, but your statement makes me hesitate)
  - sspiff 9y ago
    Sure, but implied in their Linux branding of the laptops is a promise of testing their configurations with Linux. So you are paying for a promise that the system will be compatible with Linux, I suppose. If these things interest you, you should definitely take a look at other Clevo resellers in your country, and compare the pricing to help you decide whether the added value of this promise is worth the increased retail price.
  - freedomben 9y ago
    Definitely check out System76's response to your question of showing their added value. I totally agreed with you, and that post turned me around. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refreshes_ubuntu_linux_laptops_with/ddvcx45/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refr...
    - sspiff 9y ago
      That's interesting, I'd not seen this comment before. So the good thing about System76 is that they can gather up the Linux users buying their products, and use the volume of those combined sales to give Linux users a voice with upstream manufacturers like Sager and Clevo.
  - torpcoms 9y ago
    I think it is probably: * a guarantee, and support for running Linux * UK-based customer support, rather than ROC/Taiwan-based * maybe component selection that avoids certain hardware with bad drivers?
- torpcoms 9y ago
  Any idea what ODM Purism <puri.sm> uses for their components? This is exactly the sort of thing I find interesting.
  - sspiff 9y ago
    Sadly, no. I've tried to find out but couldn't find any clues. As far as I can tell, they're using their own custom built casing. It definitely looks much better built than the Clevo machines, but I've not yet have been to get my hands on one and take a closer look.
- markbnj 9y ago
  As a system76 gazelle owner I agree with this. Nice display, great job on the drivers and system software, horrible build quality on the case, terrible keyboard, terrible fit around the trackpad, worst trackpad buttons I've ever seen. I've been developing on this for over a year and it's been ok, but the quality isn't anywhere near what you should be getting for the price point.

jabl 9y ago

> We are Linux advocates who believe in providing you the most free and open devices to create your most important work. Does that mean they have a disabled/cleaned ME like the purism machines? Or what does "free and open" mean in this case?

tankenmate 9y ago
To quote Fawlty Towers, "Don't mention the graphics card!"
- toyg 9y ago
  GPUs seem to be the only remaining issue with OEM Linux laptops. I was almost ready to buy a Purism Librem last year after the sad MBP announcements, but I got cold feet because of that. I wish someone had the money to pay one of these companies to polish linux drivers and ship some decent GPUs.
  - tankenmate 9y ago
    Well most Radeon cards work great with open source drivers, there is still the issue of closed source firmware however. But at least now the kernel drivers (kms, drm) are open source, the GL drivers (mesa) are open as well for Radeon. For some Radeon cards they perform better using the open source drivers than they do with the closed source ones.
Shelnutt2 9y ago
On the "free and open" front, their "B-29 Superfortress" linux desktop only has options for Nvidia graphics cards. Would have been nice to see some AMD options in support for their open source work.
- madez 9y ago
  The "free and open" part is lying for the sake of PR.

caterama 9y ago

Looks similar to https://system76.com/ https://system76.com/. I got the 17" Kudu for work. Honestly, I'm now aware that a 17" screen on a laptop is just too impractically big, but the hardware has been great.

marcoperaza 9y ago
Having a big screen is so nice. The 17” MacBook Pro is the second best computer I ever had, after my current Thinkpad T530. If I had to buy a new computer today (hopefully not, as my Thinkpad is still going strong at five years old), I’d probably go for the P70. I don’t mind having a big and heavy laptop though. I carry it in a backpack, and a few pounds more or less on my back is pretty insignificant.
- randlet 9y ago
  Yeah having a 17" laptop is brilliant with the caveat that they're kind of terrible on planes. I'm using a 14" ThinkPad these days and miss the extra real estate, although I've adapted to it over time.
  - marcoperaza 9y ago
    Good point. Now that you mention it, I do remember trying and giving up on using it on a plane. It’s not a big deal for me personally because I get motion sick on planes so I usually just take a couple of Dramamine and sleep through the whole flight.
vidarh 9y ago
A 17" laptop is great for working from the couch, and that's what I use it for. It's not so great as an actual portable computer, so I've coupled it with an 11" that I carry with me for meetings etc...
alex_duf 9y ago
14" is perfect size for me. Not 13", not 15" but 14". I hope it will become easier to find in the future.

chillydawg 9y ago

Screen bezel :(

Coding_Cat 9y ago

Price-wise they seem quite competitive on paper. I'm curious as to what the build quality & peripherals are like. In my experience the real difference between a regular and top-of-the-line laptop is in the small things. They're also lacking a 4k laptop, which I would highly recommend to anyone used to working on the road. (or who has to show of work to clients in person).

mnw21cam 9y ago
Price-wise, I got a zenbook for 2/3 the price, with a 3200x1800 screen (instead of 1920x1080), a slower CPU, same RAM, larger SSD, most other details the same. It's a better fit for my needs, and runs Linux perfectly. I agree completely about the screen - a decent HiDPI screen is quite wonderful. Also, I wouldn't want any of the distribution options they offer to pre-load. And I wouldn't want a pre-loaded OS anyway. I'm not trying to discourage a worthy goal, but these are some of the issues that this company has to overcome.
- freedomben 9y ago
  Having done the "buy a Windows laptop and load linux on it" thing for many years and many generations, I think I'm done. I have now had a Dell preloaded with Ubuntu and a System76 and I don't think I'll ever go back. The Dell has special drivers tho for backlight and other things, so loading a different distro is a little more work than a System76 is.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    Does System76 work on upstreaming these special drivers, or are you just stuck with whatever they slap on the disk if you want all hardware to work?
    - freedomben 9y ago
      Yes, they do specifically work on upstreaming the drivers into the Linux kernel. I found this post from System76 to be really interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refreshes_ubuntu_linux_laptops_with/ddvcx45/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refr...

lerie82 9y ago

Just buy and powerwash a Chromebook.

52-6F-62 9y ago
Seriously I wonder why not this? I understand if you're looking for a portable workstation or something of that performance why not... but for an ultra-portable little dev machine. And it would be far cheaper, too, no? (I've liked what System76 has done, but even then I probably wouldn't spring for the Galago as opposed cheaper Chromebook unless I were jumping up to one of their other workhorses)

rplnt 9y ago

Why the keyboard layout? End next to up key? Insert above backspace? What's wrong with the classic 2x3 block? Another issue I have is with the spacing between F keys. Looks like an afterthought to Fn+? keys. Not to mention there is not a single clear picture of the keyboard on the product page... https://stationx.rocks/products/manjaro-special-edition-spitfire https://stationx.rocks/products/manjaro-special-edition-spit...

diggan 9y ago
Regarding "End next to up key", it's the same as on the Carbon X1 which to be honest, is kind of comfortable. I'm using the arrow keys to scroll on pages when reading, and when I want to skip, the keys for that is right next to it.
- rplnt 9y ago
  At pictures I see PgUp/PgDown keys next to up arrow. Dell has it the same way I think. It's a bit different to an End key, but even then, the biggest issue was that it's only the End there. No Home on the other side.
  - diggan 9y ago
    Sorry, I misread "Page Up/Down" in your comment for some reason. End key is a bit more mysterious and that the is no Home is also weird.
rst 9y ago
Product customization screen has multiple keyboard layouts; "USA English" is not the default, and probably not what's in the shots (though I'm not sure where you can see what it does look like)...
- rplnt 9y ago
  I didn't mean layout in that sense, rather how keys are laid out.
9y ago

madez 9y ago

Intel backdoor included.

eeZah7Ux 9y ago

The animation made me cringe.

shusson 9y ago
I don't understand who they are targeting with it
- teamhappy 9y ago
  I don't think they understand it either.
- ddorian43 9y ago
  there are meme geeks out there

sneak 9y ago

A “MacBook Pro killer”... with a 1920x1080 display. Right.

bwindels 9y ago

> We create drop-dead gorgeous machines - designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. Only linux? Seems like a weird limitation... or am I understanding this wrong?

icebraining 9y ago
I think they mean "only designed and customized for Linux", not that it can't run other stuff. Essentially the same as 99% of laptops, except for Linux instead of Windows :)
- torpcoms 9y ago
  Although as someone mentioned below, they are rebranded Clevo machines, and really were designed to run Windows first. Station X is just offering a guarantee that they will run Linux properly.
  - oeuviz 9y ago
    Be reminded that by looking at the outside you do not know what's inside.
- freedomben 9y ago
  Agreed. I think it means, "We only test and install Linux, and don't bother with other distros. Also only pick hardware that has linux support without considering whether other OSes support that hardware"
8draco8 9y ago
Don't want to sound rude but: "created"? Or just resold whatever Compal/Clevo are building with hand picked some components like WiFi card that happen to have drivers in Linux kernel?
- mariusmg 9y ago
  "just resold whatever Compal/Clevo are building with hand picked some components like WiFi card that happen to have drivers in Linux kernel" Ooohh...bingo :)

jventura 9y ago

It seems quite good but I'm very intolerant of 16:9 screens. It's a no-go for me..

torpcoms 9y ago
Agreed, I will take the wide-screen ratio god intended (16:10) any day of the week over 16:9.

sleepychu 9y ago

> Or are we dealing with a an Arch or Gentoo stalwart? Regardless, our machines have you covered. Might be worth fixing your typo :-)

osullivj 9y ago

I had been planning to replace my faithful 5yr old Samsung Ultrabook with a Dell XPS. But I like the idea of buying from a UK supplier based in Bletchley Park and using a lot of WWII branding. I do need a win32 dev env, but I guess I could run Windows inside a VM.

toyg 9y ago
> using a lot of WWII branding Yeah tbh that's the only thing that puts me off a bit. War is war, I'd rather not glorify it; it might be a necessary evil on occasions, but I'd rather not be reminded of that every day. Then again, I'm not British. Still, I would expect the subset of potential buyers for geeky machines not to massively overlap the nationalistic subset of the British population, so to me it looks like poor marketing overall.
- chrisper 9y ago
  There is so much cultural stuff that appeared because of war. Do you avoid those things as well?
  - toyg 9y ago
    "Cultural stuff" I can choose to consume at will. The tools I use every day for my work, that's another matter.
- fareesh 9y ago
  It's entirely possible to be fond of the branding and still not glorify war
- osullivj 9y ago
  Being British I love the branding, but I am something of a WWII obsessive. WWII, the Battle of Britain, "the few", fight them on the beaches etc is a huge part of national identity in the UK. But it seems to me that WWII flavoured branding could be a huge marketing mistake in the EU territories Station X is targeting: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands.

gravypod 9y ago

The only laptop I would consider upgrading to from my Thinkpad X220 would either be a modern Thinkpad x270 (just for a hardware upgrade because I like the form factor) or to something that provides a similar keyboard, docking, and modern-ish hardware. Most of my work happens over SSH, my laptop is currently fast enough for Netflix, email, and web browsing. I'm capped at 2 1920x1080 monitors but this is livable. I think if someone took the old X220 generation Thinkpads, upgraded the internals, and kept the keyboard and docking that they would sell like hotcakes.

bitonico 9y ago
Somebody _is_ kind of doing that: https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ . They also mod x220s but the mod is more invasive since they require a different screen bezel. I recently got an x62 and it's great, although you must put some effort into making linux work smoothly on it and making the screen brighter. But all in all I am extremely happy with it.
- gravypod 9y ago
  Where do you go about buying this?

ulkesh 9y ago

The reason these look similar to System76 is because they are the exact same Clevo chassis. The bezels are awful, but I give credit to System76 and Station X and any other that works to sell and maintain Linux machines. My next Linux laptop may be from one of these companies if they can work with Clevo to stop making the screen bezels so horrendously large.

jlebrech 9y ago

what i'd like is a portable "mainframe" you can remote into from older (or cheaper) machines, something you can still in a backpack along with a chromebook.

partycoder 9y ago

I dislike the website. The reasons are: 1. "Beautiful machines" is the first point being made. This is superficial. 2. "All distros welcome". Turns out that installing a distro is the least of my concerns when it comes to a laptop. 3. The first thing you notice is this video with the multiethnic group of people from which one of them is at the front as well as happier/dancing. This is inconsistent and weird. What is the message being communicated with this? How is it relevant? Sell me a goddamn laptop instead. Put a picture of a laptop or something. In order to be constructive, what I would rather emphasize is: laptops are hardware. The intended audience here are tech enthusiasts. I would rather speak about hardware specs, or something distinctive about the hardware, compatibility, the ergonomics... post a benchmark. Something that is actually better than "beautiful laptops" and a awkward video. This is common sense. This is how a system is sold: https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ . Note: I do not own one and I am not affiliated with that company, just making a point. Then... just a reminder: most laptops are potentially a Linux laptop.

toyg 9y ago
> Turns out that installing a distro is the least of my concerns when it comes to a laptop. Man, how times have changed. Linux working half-decently on a laptop used to be the holy grail of opensource fans. Nowadays, thanks to Ubuntu and friends, chances are that most of it will just work, regardless of hardware. This is a massive achievement and it's not really as promoted as it should be.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- partycoder 9y ago
  Well, true. It can be challenging to install some distros, especially if the default configuration doesn't give you a working network interface. And while it can be solved, it's by no means a desirable first Linux experience.

nl 9y ago

Or get a Xiaomi Mi Air and get a better laptop for less money. Only downside is the low maximum RAM.

jlebrech 9y ago

If any of you visit eastern europe or countries where pirating a copy of windows is common practice, you can get linux laptops everywhere, sometimes the same machine is discounted because it's a display unit with freeDOS (who'd buy a machine you can't test)

upofadown 9y ago

> designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. So no BSD then?

freedomben 9y ago
I interpret that to mean, "We only focus on whether this thing works well with Linux." So BSD may work fine, but YMMV.

kkarp 9y ago

Next reseller of the same OEM laptop ordered somewhere in China. Check the right side of this laptop: https://stationx.rocks/products/spitfire https://stationx.rocks/products/spitfire and compare with Galago pro: https://system76.com/laptops/galago https://system76.com/laptops/galago sides: https://screenshots.firefox.com/0I2YsDmIvbKuYbr3/stationx.rocks https://screenshots.firefox.com/0I2YsDmIvbKuYbr3/stationx.ro... and https://d1vhcvzji58n1j.cloudfront.net/assets/products/galp3/ports-right_1280-32d6cdd4b5.jpg https://d1vhcvzji58n1j.cloudfront.net/assets/products/galp3/... and I've seen this model at least on two other resellers.

PleaseHelpMe 9y ago
Thank you ! This is gold. People dont notice this easily and upvote this post.
- majewsky 9y ago
  Downvoted because: see siblings.
babaganoosh89 9y ago
Seems like they’re dreaming if they expect someone to buy an $1000+ laptop from a company they’ve never heard of.
- freedomben 9y ago
  To some extent, yes. But the demo that I occupy (male, 30s, software developer, linux enthusiast, seeker of high quality hardware that is highly compatible with linux), is desperate and hungry for this.
  - mijoharas 9y ago
    Yes, to be honest, I'm quite excited by it. If only they did plain arch linux (just hard drives partitioned sensibly and graphics drivers installed, maybe X installed) and a nice thin 15 inch version...

tluyben2 9y ago

Anyone knows what the real battery life does on these because 5 hours is not very good and usually a seller is optimistic.

edent 9y ago

Entroware also resell these laptops - at a better price - https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops https://www.entroware.com/store/laptops All I want from my next laptop is to be powered via USB-C. I'm sick of dragging around multiple different chargers for my gadgets.

larelogio 9y ago
Powered by USB? Isn't that a different class of machine? Apple has the Book/Air but not the Pro.

alvil 9y ago

It starts to be wrong with Linux.

dre85 9y ago

Are they intentionally trying to optimize bezel real estate? Like for people who add a lot of post-its to the side of their screens?

snorremd 9y ago
If Linux people are known for anything it's their love of post-it notes on the side of their screen /s. But yeah. If I wanted a "gorgeous Linux laptop" I would buy a Dell XPS 13". Dell actually puts some work into making their own hardware and they upstream drivers and other stuff so the XPS actually works pretty well with Linux.
- dre85 9y ago
  I actually have a xps13 dual booting Ubuntu and Windows. It's gorgeous, fast and portable. The only thing that sucks is the track pad, but I mainly just dock it anyway so it doesn't annoy me too often.

dorfsmay 9y ago

I find it funny how a copy of a Mac is necessarily beautiful (and so original)! Anyway, no track point so I'll just skip!

dkersten 9y ago

Ugh, another wannabe macbook. If I want a mac, I'll just buy one. Please give me a good quality linux laptop that isn't trying to be a macbook.

qubex 9y ago

Aside: Station X was the wartime codename for the Bletchley Park facility where (amongst others) Alan Turing worked on breaking German Enigma-enciphered traffic and Tommy Flowers built the Colossus electronic calculator for breaking encrypted teleprinter codes (Geheimscriber). All the laptops are named after WW2-era fighter planes. The desktop is named after a long-range wartime strategic bomber.

peterisza 9y ago

"Battery life: up to 5 hours". Not a MacBook Pro killer at all.

JustSomeNobody 9y ago
I read that and came to say the same. Not sure if this is because of Linux power management or the hardware itself. Either way I don't consider any laptop with "up to 5 hours" battery life an option anymore. I keep laptops longer and batteries degrade over the years.

qwerty456127 9y ago

How are these compared to Purism?

zx2c4 9y ago

The way to attract Linux users is to tempt them away from their Thinkpads. The way to do that is to offer a laptop with a trackpoint, this little red dot: https://www.google.com/search?q=trackpoint&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=trackpoint&tbm=isch

hateduser2 9y ago
Never understood the appeal of this thing.. tried it once to move the mouse and it was just so slow and awkward.. hardly seemed to work at all.. why do people like this? I really don’t get it myself.. is it for something besides moving the mouse? The thing seems pretty bad for that purpose.. maybe to move he mouse in small increments? Would love an explanation because I absolutely don’t get it myself.. pls help!
- jack_pp 9y ago
  Did you try it on an actual thinkpad? I have a dell with a trackpoint and it's nowhere near as accurate. The appeal is that your fingers don't ever need to leave the homerow and also working from your lap on a bus for example is much easier since your hand doesn't have room to move to get to the trackpad
  - dagw 9y ago
    Agreed. Used to have an IBM Thinkpad with a trackpoint and loved it. Then I got first a Dell and later an HP laptop with trackpoints and could never get used to either of them. They just didn't work anywhere near as well as my old Thinkpad. I cannot really articulate the difference, but it was massive.
  - lenkite 9y ago
    I think its because on Thinkpads, the trackpad is rather terrible, so you are forced to use the trackpoint if you want quick, trouble-free movement without a mouse. On the macbook, the trackpad is gorgeously smooth, you don't need to leave the homerow in order to move the cursor - can do any movement with either thumb.
- 9y ago

jorgemf 9y ago

"By Linux nerds for Linux nerds." and all the people in the picture are guys with glasses a couple of man from different nationalities. Thanks for the stereotype. Women in tech are going to be very proud of this image.

walsk 9y ago
I'm sorry (and I'm so called woman in tech, if any), but shouldn't girls worry about WomenInTech trend? If everyone makes you a way because you're a Woman, not a good engineer - is there anything good about this? Who cares about the picture, if these guys make nice laptops?
- mitjak 9y ago
  I'm not a woman but I think you're misunderstanding. It's about fair representation, not special treatment because you're a woman. Assuming that's a promo video, it's under-represented.
  - slantyyz 9y ago
    The under-represented party in that video is the hardware. Humans (regardless of whether they are male, female or other) are over-represented in that video and they add no useful information to prospective buyers.
- jorgemf 9y ago
  I care because they are promoting an image that is not true. And you as a woman (I am not) should care about it too. Because the picture means that only men, regardless their nationality, can be linux nerds. I would be offended if I were a girl who is a linux nerd. The same way they added 4 nationalities, they could have added a woman. Because they didn't choose 4 random guys and get 4 different nationalities by chance.
- vertex-four 9y ago
  When everything a person sees says "people who are part of this community are men", it's driving women away from that community. When women visit my hackspace, they tend not to come back once they realise I'm the only other woman there and the culture is reasonably masculine. It sucks to feel like you don't belong. Ensuring that as many interested people as possible feel like they belong should be something that any subset of society thinks about, especially when publishing materials aimed at a broad audience. The issue, for the record, isn't a single material. If there wasn't a problem in the first place, there'd be nothing to criticise here, except for it feeling a bit out of place - the fact that not many people feel a bit odd about a marketing material targeted towards "Linux nerds" that only features men is a small piece evidence for said problem.

Too 9y ago

"All distros covered " = No distro really fully covered. The world doesn't need another random laptop which you might be able to install Linux on. What's needed is a Linux laptop that just works(tm) - all the time, every time, with the most common peripherals.

dajohnson89 9y ago

is 8gb of ram really enough these days? I know for my development and multitasking I'd feel underpowered with 16gb, but 16 is at least a decent baseline.

snvzz 9y ago

I had to close within seconds of dealing with this web design, to keep my sanity. Adding that to the pushing of one distribution over the others... way to utterly misunderstand your target market. I doubt they'll be selling many. Morons, the bunch of them.

sandworm101 9y ago

Any company trying to make it's name in the Linux market has to field stuff at lower pricepoints. I can buy a perfectly good Acer netbook for 300$ and install Ubuntu in a matter of minutes. If you cannot do small and cheap, the thing that Linux can do better than anyone else, you aren't going to win over many people.

vidarh 9y ago
The margins in the low end PC laptop market are so narrow that it's a crazy place to aim for if you're a small player.
- sandworm101 9y ago
  But people looking to test out a new company/os want cheap. They will come back later once confidant. Smaller/cheaper generally also means greater battery life.
  - vidarh 9y ago
    But will they come back looking for something more expensive? I'm not sure there's any money aiming for the market that buys cheap. On the other hand enthusiast vendors like e.g. PC Specialist in the UK have survived for many years selling PC's in the price segment these guys are going after, because frankly for some of the models you could survive as a small company on a few dozen a month, while you might have to sell 10x-20x as many units to make similar margins to cover salaries and sales costs for lower priced units.

dirtyqwerty 9y ago

Wow, so much dudebro. That animated gif is killing me.

albertzeyer 9y ago

It says "MacBook Pro killer". Is there an option to have a high-resolution screen (e.g. 2880 x 1800, like Retina)? All I found was Full HD IPS 1920 x 1080.

linopolus 9y ago

> Gorgeous Linux laptops First thing I noticed on these pictures, was the ugly sticker left side underneath the keyboard. Sorry, but such trifles got nothing to do with gorgeous. Also, black camera frame, huge display bezel, and non-centered touchpads are, imho, a nogo if you wanna call it gorgeous.

dingo_bat 9y ago
I prefer the touchpad not to be in centre. It does not make any sense. It's like putting your mouse in the middle of your desk, instead of the right or left where you can actually hold it properly.

ratsimihah 9y ago

The marketing feels so try-hard. Do you need to shit on Macbook because there's nothing to sell otherwise? So passive aggressive.

dingo_bat 9y ago

> designed and customised to run Linux - and only Linux. So have they blocked installation of windows in some manner, a la Chromebook?

karmakaze 9y ago

Is there an option to have a '\' key where that weird shaped Enter key is?

lowlevel 9y ago

Love the video ad but its pretty hard for me to consider buying one of these. I want on site repair/replacement... not 'user serviceable' try to fix it yourself... my last three HP laptops were all over $2500 and all needed on-site service at some point.