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Wow, this seems like a pretty nice laptop that supports OSS software out of the box. Keyboard, screen, and form factor seem to be exactly what people want. I w

by 0xCMP 8y ago

Wow, this seems like a pretty nice laptop that supports OSS software out of the box. Keyboard, screen, and form factor seem to be exactly what people want. I wonder how the trackpad is (usually a major problem with non-Apple devices to get "right"). I also wonder what the battery life is like since I didn't see that in the review either.

robotresearcher 8y ago
Linux Journal’s review had specs. 48 Wh battery ‘up to 8 hours’ but this review said 4 while typing.
- sowbug 8y ago
  That article is from three years ago (https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/purism-librem-13-review https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/purism-librem-13-review). Is this an old laptop, or was that a really early review? It does say it's for a prototype, but that's still a long time ago.
  - andrewcchen 8y ago
    That one has an i7-5557U, compared to the i7-6500U the current one is selling with, so probably an early prototype.
kyleperik 8y ago
Purism says that it lasts up to 12 hours with light usage, and I can attest to that. The only times I need make sure to plug in my computer is when I'm using a lot of CPU
larkeith 8y ago
He had battery under misc: "Battery: The battery is really good for a GNU/Linux laptop. I was used to laptops with two hours maximum while typing and 30min while painting. This one can go almost to four hours while typing and 1h30 while painting. Sometime even more, it depends the backlight settings and your activity with it."
passivepinetree 8y ago
The author mentioned that battery life is better than expected for a laptop running GNU/Linux: about 4 hours of normal use or 1:30 if painting. The trackpad is the biggest question though: it’s Apple’s trademark and no other manufacturer seems to do it even close to as well.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  I've always hated clickpads in general including apples. Dell XPS is by far the best I have ever used. And I actually use it now instead of just disabling it.
mayamatrix 8y ago
The trackpad is great - best I've used. Getting 5-6 hours of battery life with moderate workload on Unity on Ubuntu 17.10
- el_benhameen 8y ago
  Have you used a Mac trackpad enough to make a comparison? If it stands up to a Mac trackpad, this thing could be a real contender for my next machine.
  - mayamatrix 8y ago
    It's been such a long time that I hesitate to compare.
  - mmrezaie 8y ago
    no, they are not in the same world. one of my colleagues has it and compared to my previous machine 2013 MacBook pro it doesn't compare but even with my Thinkpad x1 5th gen, I think mac still has a better touchpad. Mostly it is because of libinput probably. Never tried mac touchpad on Linux.
nfoz 8y ago
I know I'm not normal about this, but I can't use a Linux/Windows laptop without physical mouse-buttons on the touchpad. This is actually the only reason I didn't buy a Librem13. Apple's touchpad is better than the other OS's at least in part because the software driver is smarter. I think Purism themselves were working to improve the linux driver so there's hope on that front. I read Apple's touchpad-driver source-code about 10 years ago, which was available to read under some OpenDarwin apple license. It was pretty neat. IIRC they draw a perfect circle from the center of the touchpad, radius extending to the top and bottom. Any time there's a keypress on the keyboard, within a small time-delay, any mouse motion outside of the circle is discarded. Brilliant! In comparison, the Linux and Windows drivers of the day would typically just say: within some larger(!) time-delay of a keypress, discard ALL touchpad motion. Which is noticeably more frustrating -- you had no way to reliably move the cursor at all while typing. In any case, Macbooks were less enjoyable to me when they removed the physical button, but their driver is still ahead enough that it's not so bad to use, and their UI requires somewhat less right-clicking than I need especially on Linux. But for Linux usage I require precise left and right clicks which I can only get from real buttons. I'm currently using a Dell Latitude 7380. The touchpad is great with real buttons :) But hilariously, I found (and taught them about) a bug with their keyboard firmware causing me frequent typoes, which affects all XPS 13 and Latitude 7xxx laptops. Last month they issued a BIOS update to fix it, specifically for the Latitude series. But if you have an XPS 13, I think they have not provided a fix yet, so you are probably running into typoes that are not your fault!
- nfoz 8y ago
  I suppose I shouldn't leave on a cliffhanger, even if it's off-topic. If you have a Dell XPS 13, try the following in any editor: 1. Type the letter "k". 2. At virtually the same time, type the letters "o" and "k". Press them at basically the same time except so that the "o" is first before the "k". You should expect to see "kok", but if you encounter the bug then you'll just have "ko". This problem is for any two keys on the keyboard, if typed in that "A, BA" pattern. Let me know if you have the bug! If it's not solved in the latest BIOS, then Dell probably needs a kick-in-the-pants from a real XPS13 owner to solve it (even though I tried my best to convince them that it has the same bug as the Latitude 7xxx, which is basically the business-equivalent but with my beloved touchpad buttons).
tomcooks 8y ago
Review mentions battery.

by 0xCMP 8y ago

robotresearcher 8y ago

Linux Journal’s review had specs. 48 Wh battery ‘up to 8 hours’ but this review said 4 while typing.

sowbug 8y ago
That article is from three years ago (https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/purism-librem-13-review https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/purism-librem-13-review). Is this an old laptop, or was that a really early review? It does say it's for a prototype, but that's still a long time ago.
- andrewcchen 8y ago
  That one has an i7-5557U, compared to the i7-6500U the current one is selling with, so probably an early prototype.

kyleperik 8y ago

Purism says that it lasts up to 12 hours with light usage, and I can attest to that. The only times I need make sure to plug in my computer is when I'm using a lot of CPU

larkeith 8y ago

He had battery under misc: "Battery: The battery is really good for a GNU/Linux laptop. I was used to laptops with two hours maximum while typing and 30min while painting. This one can go almost to four hours while typing and 1h30 while painting. Sometime even more, it depends the backlight settings and your activity with it."

passivepinetree 8y ago

The author mentioned that battery life is better than expected for a laptop running GNU/Linux: about 4 hours of normal use or 1:30 if painting. The trackpad is the biggest question though: it’s Apple’s trademark and no other manufacturer seems to do it even close to as well.

paulie_a 8y ago
I've always hated clickpads in general including apples. Dell XPS is by far the best I have ever used. And I actually use it now instead of just disabling it.

mayamatrix 8y ago

The trackpad is great - best I've used. Getting 5-6 hours of battery life with moderate workload on Unity on Ubuntu 17.10

el_benhameen 8y ago
Have you used a Mac trackpad enough to make a comparison? If it stands up to a Mac trackpad, this thing could be a real contender for my next machine.
- mayamatrix 8y ago
  It's been such a long time that I hesitate to compare.
- mmrezaie 8y ago
  no, they are not in the same world. one of my colleagues has it and compared to my previous machine 2013 MacBook pro it doesn't compare but even with my Thinkpad x1 5th gen, I think mac still has a better touchpad. Mostly it is because of libinput probably. Never tried mac touchpad on Linux.

nfoz 8y ago

I know I'm not normal about this, but I can't use a Linux/Windows laptop without physical mouse-buttons on the touchpad. This is actually the only reason I didn't buy a Librem13. Apple's touchpad is better than the other OS's at least in part because the software driver is smarter. I think Purism themselves were working to improve the linux driver so there's hope on that front. I read Apple's touchpad-driver source-code about 10 years ago, which was available to read under some OpenDarwin apple license. It was pretty neat. IIRC they draw a perfect circle from the center of the touchpad, radius extending to the top and bottom. Any time there's a keypress on the keyboard, within a small time-delay, any mouse motion outside of the circle is discarded. Brilliant! In comparison, the Linux and Windows drivers of the day would typically just say: within some larger(!) time-delay of a keypress, discard ALL touchpad motion. Which is noticeably more frustrating -- you had no way to reliably move the cursor at all while typing. In any case, Macbooks were less enjoyable to me when they removed the physical button, but their driver is still ahead enough that it's not so bad to use, and their UI requires somewhat less right-clicking than I need especially on Linux. But for Linux usage I require precise left and right clicks which I can only get from real buttons. I'm currently using a Dell Latitude 7380. The touchpad is great with real buttons :) But hilariously, I found (and taught them about) a bug with their keyboard firmware causing me frequent typoes, which affects all XPS 13 and Latitude 7xxx laptops. Last month they issued a BIOS update to fix it, specifically for the Latitude series. But if you have an XPS 13, I think they have not provided a fix yet, so you are probably running into typoes that are not your fault!

nfoz 8y ago
I suppose I shouldn't leave on a cliffhanger, even if it's off-topic. If you have a Dell XPS 13, try the following in any editor: 1. Type the letter "k". 2. At virtually the same time, type the letters "o" and "k". Press them at basically the same time except so that the "o" is first before the "k". You should expect to see "kok", but if you encounter the bug then you'll just have "ko". This problem is for any two keys on the keyboard, if typed in that "A, BA" pattern. Let me know if you have the bug! If it's not solved in the latest BIOS, then Dell probably needs a kick-in-the-pants from a real XPS13 owner to solve it (even though I tried my best to convince them that it has the same bug as the Latitude 7xxx, which is basically the business-equivalent but with my beloved touchpad buttons).

tomcooks 8y ago

Review mentions battery.