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Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

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Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#31

Post by kbart »

mi100hael wrote: post #10
hedora wrote: post #6

I really want one of these, but the ergonomics look awful. Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? (“Linux” is not a valid reason...) Also, as much as I would like a 15” screen, the off center keyboard is a deal-breaker. It’s just asking for RSI. Does anyone own one? How is the trackpad / keyboard / battery life / fan noise? Maybe I can deal with 1080p in exchange for a reasona…

Yeah I would have bought one when I was shopping but numpads on a laptop are a terrible idea. I ended up going for a Dell Precision 15 instead.

"numpads on a laptop are a terrible idea."

Terrible idea for you, great idea for me. As I've mentioned in my other comment, numpad is a must for me, even on laptop, so you shouldn't generalize like that.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#32

Post by kbart »

Yaggo wrote: post #30
kbart wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Is entering numbers with a numpad so common use case that it justifies the inclusion of mini-numpad at the cost of off-centering the main keyboard?" At least for me - definitely yes. I won't even look at the laptop that doesn't have dedicated numpad. I guess it's a matter of taste and use case.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do?

(Embedded) System engineer, so lot's of hex typing and editing. It's a pain without full numpad.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#34

Post by andy_ppp »

broodbucket wrote: post #25
hedora wrote: post #6

I really want one of these, but the ergonomics look awful. Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? (“Linux” is not a valid reason...) Also, as much as I would like a 15” screen, the off center keyboard is a deal-breaker. It’s just asking for RSI. Does anyone own one? How is the trackpad / keyboard / battery life / fan noise? Maybe I can deal with 1080p in exchange for a reasona…

1080p is considered low res! Crazy the times we live in. There are still laptop manufacturers making 1366x768 displays, the worst resolution ever invented. I understand pixel density is nice, but for the vast majority of workflows you do not need anything better than 1080p on a 15" display.

No you don’t need better than 1080p but most developers need crisp text and I would like to go further and 4k 15inch displays would be perfect for me as it would allow me to have smaller text without a loss of quality.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#35

Post by scoopr »

I've been looking at librem laptops, as I'd kinda like a dedicated linux laptop. But as with many of these kinds of projects, i18n concerns are secondary, and in this case, there is no scandinavian/nordic keyboard options :/ (And I do appreciate that it might not be quite simple to have all kinds of keyboard configurations available)

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#36

Post by pveierland »

klibertp wrote: post #21
mi100hael wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I would have bought one when I was shopping but numpads on a laptop are a terrible idea. I ended up going for a Dell Precision 15 instead.

> numpads on a laptop are a terrible idea. I disagree completely. Having a numpad on a laptop is the only way of getting cursors and function keys (from Home to Insert to Delete) in a sane place. On my current laptop, were it not for a numpad, I'd have to press a Fn key every time I wanted to use Home/End. I'd also need to hunt for Delete somewhere above the Backspace, and PageUp/PageDown being on both sides of Up ar…

> I disagree completely. Having a numpad on a laptop is the only way of getting cursors and function keys (from Home to Insert to Delete) in a sane place. On my current laptop, were it not for a numpad, I'd have to press a Fn key every time I wanted to use Home/End. I'd also need to hunt for Delete somewhere above the Backspace, and PageUp/PageDown being on both sides of Up arrow (and close to it!) is simply infuriating. And it's a Dell Latitude[1], much better in this regard than tons of normal laptops.

I've found the layout used on the VAIO Z to be very practical, with Home/End as FN + Left/Right, and PageUp/PageDown as FN + Up/Down:

https://www.replacementlaptopkeys.com/product_images/images/...

It appears to be close to the Dell Latitude, but removing the dedicated PageUp/PageDown keys, and instead having larger arrow keys likely works better.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#37

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

G8WyaX wrote: post #18

What about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseband_processor#Security_co... in Purism 5 phone?

The baseband processor isn't started as first boot, and as I understand it can be selectively enabled/disabled while main cpu is on.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#38

Post by zsoltgyongyosi »

scoopr wrote: post #35

I've been looking at librem laptops, as I'd kinda like a dedicated linux laptop. But as with many of these kinds of projects, i18n concerns are secondary, and in this case, there is no scandinavian/nordic keyboard options :/ (And I do appreciate that it might not be quite simple to have all kinds of keyboard configurations available)

It's surprisingly easy to switch to the English layout. As a programmer, it was refreshing to leave behind the convoluted key combinations while coding. (I'm looking at you, `tilde`, on a Hungarian keyboard)

On Linux, writing accents using a compose key isn't much slower than typing the letters directly either.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#39

Post by allendoerfer »

hedora wrote: post #6

I really want one of these, but the ergonomics look awful. Is there a technical reason they only come with low resolution (1080p) screens? (“Linux” is not a valid reason...) Also, as much as I would like a 15” screen, the off center keyboard is a deal-breaker. It’s just asking for RSI. Does anyone own one? How is the trackpad / keyboard / battery life / fan noise? Maybe I can deal with 1080p in exchange for a reasona…

I basically have the same technology in my 4 year old Zenbook (1080p screen, no USB-C ports, etc.). The CPU was upgraded, but is still outdated. But that I could maybe compromise on if the build quality was good.

What are absolute dealbreakers are the missing keyboard options for my country.

Re: Purism Librem Laptops Completely Disable Intel’s Management Engine

#40

Post by letsgetphysITal »

kbart wrote: post #32
Yaggo wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do?

(Embedded) System engineer, so lot's of hex typing and editing. It's a pain without full numpad.

How about a USB numberpad with all 16 hex characters?

http://www.ipv6buddy.com/

I am in no way affiliated, I just searched "USB hex numberpad"

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