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I don't think they could win with a "Linux Edition" laptop. What distro would they ship with? Pop!_OS? Ubuntu? Debian? Fedora? Alpine? Manjaro? No matter what t

I don't think they could win with a "Linux Edition" laptop. What distro would they ship with? Pop!_OS? Ubuntu? Debian? Fedora? Alpine? Manjaro? No matter what they choose, I suspect they'd just get accused of picking sides and the vast majority of users would just re-install with their preferred distro.

nrp 4y ago
Yep, this is indeed the main reason behind this. We polled the community and found a pretty even split between several major distros. Rather than having inventory explosion from a large number of OS-specific SKUs, we optimized for shipping without an OS and writing easy to follow install guides.
- baybal2 4y ago
  Linux only editions nevertheless makes sense if you want to cut down on the chipset cost. AMD chipsets have SoundWire, and MIPI CSI/DSI support, but there are no way to use them in Windows. Intel is starting to support them as well with Alder Lake mobile. SoundWire is way simpler than HDA, and availability/cost is better. Connecting the whole suite of peripherals over i2c allows to dispose of wide LIF cable from the front panel. No LPC EC needed. MIPI CSI cameras are vastly superior to USB ones, and are dirt chip for price/picture quality due to the size of smartphone market. Tablet use MIPI DSI panels price/quality is superior to LVDS panels, and you will never get such thin laptop-use panels. Linux can use non-SMBus battery gauges, and PMICs. Again, you can forego paying the x86 premium on SMBus vs. i2c controlled PMICs.
ISL 4y ago
The older I get, the less I care about which distribution comes on a linux laptop. The fact that it exists at all is a reason to consider the model. A production linux laptop is a clear statement, "All of our hardware is immediately compatible with linux. Sure, our distro has little warts, but you can either install your own or `apt-get install fluxbox`, copy in your config files, and get right to work, ISL."
- Tijdreiziger 4y ago
  They do have a clear statement on Linux compatibility: https://frame.work/nl/en/linux https://frame.work/nl/en/linux
- TillE 4y ago
  I don't think it's a very big deal to say "yes, we're fully compatible with Ubuntu" and let you spend ten minutes installing it. I don't need someone else to install an OS for me. The actual important thing is that all their hardware has Linux drivers.
  - michaelt 4y ago
    Depends if the laptop manufacturer wants to make promises like "Battery life: 20 hours of 1080p video streaming" Most laptops that achieve that require the hardware, OS and browser working together. I've seen laptops that, when running Linux, struggle to last through an hour-long video call.
slaw 4y ago
I don't care which distro they ship as long as it works. My company will not buy me a laptop without operating system and I will not recommend to my friends laptop without operating system.

nrp 4y ago

Yep, this is indeed the main reason behind this. We polled the community and found a pretty even split between several major distros. Rather than having inventory explosion from a large number of OS-specific SKUs, we optimized for shipping without an OS and writing easy to follow install guides.

baybal2 4y ago
Linux only editions nevertheless makes sense if you want to cut down on the chipset cost. AMD chipsets have SoundWire, and MIPI CSI/DSI support, but there are no way to use them in Windows. Intel is starting to support them as well with Alder Lake mobile. SoundWire is way simpler than HDA, and availability/cost is better. Connecting the whole suite of peripherals over i2c allows to dispose of wide LIF cable from the front panel. No LPC EC needed. MIPI CSI cameras are vastly superior to USB ones, and are dirt chip for price/picture quality due to the size of smartphone market. Tablet use MIPI DSI panels price/quality is superior to LVDS panels, and you will never get such thin laptop-use panels. Linux can use non-SMBus battery gauges, and PMICs. Again, you can forego paying the x86 premium on SMBus vs. i2c controlled PMICs.

ISL 4y ago

The older I get, the less I care about which distribution comes on a linux laptop. The fact that it exists at all is a reason to consider the model. A production linux laptop is a clear statement, "All of our hardware is immediately compatible with linux. Sure, our distro has little warts, but you can either install your own or `apt-get install fluxbox`, copy in your config files, and get right to work, ISL."

Tijdreiziger 4y ago
They do have a clear statement on Linux compatibility: https://frame.work/nl/en/linux https://frame.work/nl/en/linux
TillE 4y ago
I don't think it's a very big deal to say "yes, we're fully compatible with Ubuntu" and let you spend ten minutes installing it. I don't need someone else to install an OS for me. The actual important thing is that all their hardware has Linux drivers.
- michaelt 4y ago
  Depends if the laptop manufacturer wants to make promises like "Battery life: 20 hours of 1080p video streaming" Most laptops that achieve that require the hardware, OS and browser working together. I've seen laptops that, when running Linux, struggle to last through an hour-long video call.

slaw 4y ago

I don't care which distro they ship as long as it works. My company will not buy me a laptop without operating system and I will not recommend to my friends laptop without operating system.