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StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

starlabs.systems

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Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#271

Post by stevehawk »

belter wrote: post #196
azangru wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have they actually made one yet? Exactly. No real laptops so far; no videos with honest in-depth reviews; no information on the dirability of these machines. If something is too good to be true, it likely is.

If you are talking about YouTube reviews. Please tell me where you find in-depth honest reviews. Because every channel I have seen on anything...Is claiming independent reviews, while getting product test samples loaned for 1 or 2 years. Engaging on a direct contact with the marketing departments of the vendors, and working under the certainty that if they ever do a thoughtful and true review with a bad rating, the v…

linus tech tips?

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#272

Post by wpietri »

perihelions wrote: post #203
chx wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I missing something? Yeah. The company is three people with practically no money at hand. I can't imagine this being real. Check "full accounts made up to 28 February 2022" https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... with cash at hand being just 13,887 pounds. How on earth are you making a laptop from that? Framework started with a nine million seed round and had the former head of hardware a…

- "Note there's no doxxing here, " How on Earth could a customer looking up a vendor's business information be construed doxxing? Do you guys -- I'm asking sincerely, I'm feeling extraordinarily confused and out-of-touch -- think there's some of genuine privacy interest here that you'd wish to respect? Some sort of "right to anonymous business", where you can hide all your sketchiness behind a shell company and peopl…

> How on Earth could a customer looking up a vendor's business information be construed doxxing?

I think "doxxing" has in some cases evolved from a sometimes-necessary norm in pseudonymous forums to a context-free knee-jerk reaction to somebody's details being out there.

I appreciate the norm when it allows people to safely be themselves among pseudonymous peers. Yes, by all means let's keep each other feeling safe. But like you, when somebody is doing business with the public, I think we should expect to know who they are. It seems insane to me that MrSquanchy69 can take in gobs of money, execute a rugpull, and have people saying, "bUt WhAt aBOuT tHeIr PriVAcY?!?" Public impact and public accountability go hand in hand.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#273

Post by moremetadata »

wpietri wrote: post #272
perihelions wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- "Note there's no doxxing here, " How on Earth could a customer looking up a vendor's business information be construed doxxing? Do you guys -- I'm asking sincerely, I'm feeling extraordinarily confused and out-of-touch -- think there's some of genuine privacy interest here that you'd wish to respect? Some sort of "right to anonymous business", where you can hide all your sketchiness behind a shell company and peopl…

> How on Earth could a customer looking up a vendor's business information be construed doxxing? I think "doxxing" has in some cases evolved from a sometimes-necessary norm in pseudonymous forums to a context-free knee-jerk reaction to somebody's details being out there. I appreciate the norm when it allows people to safely be themselves among pseudonymous peers. Yes, by all means let's keep each other feeling safe.…

> But like you, when somebody is doing business with the public, I think we should expect to know who they are.

If you want public accountability, then start with the legislators.

I'll give you an example, the state claims to have the publics interest at heart, especially kids, so why dont they teach law to kids at school?

You cant assume parents have the best interests of their kids at heart. Some state employees will abuse their own kids in order to further the science that wouldn't have got past a University's ethics board!

Where is the public holding the state to account, when it hides behind its own legislated secrecy?

So when you say "by all means let's keep each other feeling safe" do you really mean that or are just satisfying some subconscious desire to divide people?

Lots of businesses run out of disused farm buildings, its cheap space.

Google started from a garage in someone's home. Many businesses run from people's spare bedroom.

What purpose is the doxxing serving other than drawing attention to a location?

Google used to do way more doxxing of people in the early days, like displaying content behind password protected forums on people.

Dont see Google getting called out about that do we?

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#274

Post by steelframe »

totalhack wrote: post #219

Pricing seems extremely high for the specs once you start to configure. I really want to see a company do something compelling here but there is always one thing that's off...pricing, screen, last gen processors. I switched back to Linux last year and ended up getting a $900 Lenovo that has been excellent. Would have tried System76 or Framework if their hardware could keep up.

I agree that pricing might be their biggest challenge. Matte 4k X1 Carbon ThinkPads in like-new condition go for around $1k on eBay, and they run Linux fine, so long as you're willing to install non-free firmware. I'm not sure what kind of premium I'd be willing to pay to get the faster boot and libre firmware from a company with no track record at all in the marketplace. I've recently upgraded the SSD in my T480s that's running Debian, and I figure I have another 2 or 3 years before I'll feel the need to go shopping for something better. Maybe when the used ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 AMD machines start hitting eBay in force.

I also own a Framework laptop, and the 3:2 aspect ratio is a killer feature for me. It's really hard to go back to 16:10 after using that for a while.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#275

Post by lhl »

localplume wrote: post #163
LoveMortuus wrote: post #150

Intel i3-1215U, 16GB RAM, 240GB SSD, 4K display for €1.565,81, which is the cheapest that I could select feels a bit expensive... A quick look on Geizhals[1], gives many alternatives, with better CPU and storage. The only thing that's probably different is the Linux aspect of the laptop. [1] https://geizhals.eu/?cat=nb&xf=12_16384~2991_480~6752_Core+i... But 240GB of storage... That's so little, even my phone (POCO X…

Yeah I was looking at those specs, and these seems very overpriced no? If you spec a Tuxedo Aura 15 Gen2 ( https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Notebooks/... ) to the same level (not sure what the equivalent to the CPU is for Ryzen though), and although the display isn't 4K its still much less (just over 700, so around half the price...). There are nice features that the StarFighter has than the Aura 15…

While the StarFighter is a much more expensive product, I think the argument would be that it's fairly unique, arguably the highest end Ryzen 6000 developer laptop that an end-user can order globally (but not get delivered, sadly) atm. Comparing the Aura 15 Gen 2:

* One of the biggest spec differences is that the Aura uses a Zen2 based 5700U (Lucienne) vs the StarFighter's Zen3+ based 6800H (Rembrandt) so expect a +50% performance difference on MT workloads: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/4156vs4749/AMD-Ryzen-7-...

* iGPU is also a big improvement. The 6800H's GPU is about 70% faster on synthetic and 90% faster on gaming benchmarks: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Vega-8-vs-Radeon-680M_10313_11... - it also has a newer VCN engine that supports AV1 decoding among other things

* The Aura has USB3 vs the Starfighter w/ USB4 (again, thanks to the new Ryzen generation), which will give you 40Gbps transfer rates, support for eGPU enclosures, etc

* Better display panels can be hundreds of dollars more expensive (here's a discussion of a $250 price gap for upgrading to a 4K panel from a few years back: https://www.reddit.com/r/XMG_gg/comments/izg598/no_4koled_pa...) - a 600nit vs 300nit display btw, is a world of difference

* 49Wh vs 85Wh battery is a 73% bigger capacity battery. At an equivalent power usage, that'd be the difference between 7h vs 12h of light usage for example and IMO isn't something to scoff at.

* Due I expect primarily due to it's Mg alloy chassis, the Starfighter is actually 250g lighter - 1.4kg vs 1.65kg, which is actually quite impressive for its size and battery capacity. The pogo-pin/removable webcam leads to a sleeker and compact frame that probably helps in shaving off size/weight even if you don't care about the privacy aspect

* While I prefer replaceable SO-DIMMs on my laptops, the Starfighter at least lets you configure w/ 64GB of LPDDR5 so you get the better power efficiency, performance, and weight savings w/o sacrificing upgradability (64GB is the max the Ryzen 6000 platform supports)

* coreboot option vs AMI BIOS - to me this is more of a neat nice to have, but I understand the sort of development commitment/investment in the future this thing is. Here's a discussion on Coreboot for Framework from their forums: https://community.frame.work/t/coreboot-on-the-framework-lap...

* Having been using a Framework w/ a fingerprint sensor that works in Linux for the past half year+ now, I will admit that it's hard to go back to something that doesn't have this, and I'd pay a fair amount extra for this...

Anyway, while you do pay a hefty premium for maxing out the specs (more than the cost of each individual improvement), it actually seems not so egregious when I add it ll up, if only because it seems like no one else is doing it. Of course, this calculus I think changes if delivery gets delayed and/if someone were to release a high-end Ryzen 7040 Linux-friendly laptop (Zen4, RNDA3, Xilinx AI accelerator) before then.

BTW, I think that the Tuxedo Infinity Book Pro 14/16 Gen7 (https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityBook-Pro-1... and https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-InfinityBook-Pro-1...), while Intel-based (12700H), with a bigger battery, better display, better IO, and lighter chassis than the Aura is much more competitive with the StarFighter. Sadly the IBPs don't have a US ANSI keyboard layout...

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#276

Post by nicoburns »

smoldesu wrote: post #266
dom96 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely curious what is better. MacBook Pros have been the gold standard for a while and now with the ARM chips they are pretty much unbeatable in my eyes.

Personally, I tend to err on the side of hardware that can take a fall from waist-height and not set me back $600. To each their own though, I guess.

What kind of computer hardware meets that criteria? Toughbooks?

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#277

Post by nicoburns »

komali2 wrote: post #247
koonsolo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the sound quality? Is it comparable to a MacBook?

I'm really curious about people that actually use laptop speakers. Even the best laptop speakers I've heard (I've heard MacBook speakers too) sound terrible. Other than for a quick video or demo or whatever, who is seriously listening to videos or music on laptop speakers... And why??? Even a cheap pair of earbuds sounds better to me.

> Even a cheap pair of earbuds sounds better to me.

That doesn't work very well if there's more than one of you trying to watch...

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#278

Post by lhl »

japanman425 wrote: post #80
ahoya wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s one of the only laptops that ship with core boot, Fully up-to-date with upstream commits to work flawlessly with their hardware. Their support has been extremely helpful, and the build quality is amazing. Fully custom hardware, which is extremely rare for Linux computers. I am just a happy customer, no other affiliation.

Where are you buying laptops (your grandma’s acer doesn’t count but even so…) where it does that “flawlessly” work with its hardware? Just becoming a fetish at this point.

Sadly, when it comes to Linux compatibility on laptops, "flawless" hardware compatibility is still an extremely rare exception (and even pre-installed and Linux certified laptop models like Dell XPS DE, or Lenovo ThinkPads can have long-standing issues).

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#279

Post by ahoya »

lhl wrote: post #131
ahoya wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practically as upgradable and maintainable/repairable as the framework. They sell all of the components separately, and this runs a fully up-to-date coreboot and even esoteric linux systems get tested on it. It is a significantly better Linux computer.

Well, it might be a better Linux computer when it ships. The StarBook Mk VI ran about 6 months behind schedule (pre-orders are still shipping now: https://support.starlabs.systems/status/f38fed83-e6a1-454c-8... ) though so I wouldn't set your watch to it...

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Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#280

Post by ahoya »

TylerE wrote: post #166
kodah wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just spec'd one out and it was pretty similar to the I9 MBP. Personally, I'd pay that price for a Linux laptop that's on par with a MBP.

Do we really think the build quality of these is even in the same state, much less the same ballpark, as a MBP?

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