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MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

mnt.stanleylieber.com

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Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#91

Post by pessimizer »

exitb wrote: post #10

It's an interesting concept, but perhaps a bit financially and environmentally wasteful, when you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad for 10% of the price that will perform roughly as well as this one. We don't need to bring more low-powered laptops into this world.

> you can get a 10 year old ThinkPad for 10% of the price that will perform roughly as well as this one.

Eventually those Thinkpads will run/wear out. The hardware designs for a [pretty much a Thinkpad] will be a good thing to have then. Let rich nerds looking for bragging rights support development for the future; call them patrons.

Also, they will sell 6 of these, it's not an environmental concern in any way.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#92

Post by camel-cdr »

gjvc wrote: post #47

this idiom should be encouraged: echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/class/leds/ath9k-phy0/brightness rather than the style in the article: echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/ath9k-phy0/brightness # needs root permissions

Thanks I've been doing dumb sudo sh -c ... stuff before.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#94

Post by silon42 »

jogu wrote: post #52
silon42 wrote: post #8

As it's not very small, it would be a lot cooler if it had a full no compromise TKL mechanical keyboard.

The keyboard uses low profile choc v1 mechanical switches. Aside from the split space bar this is about as close to a no compromise, standard layout as you can get I think.

Switches might be OK, would have to try... but layout is a huge compromise.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#96

Post by theodric »

irusensei wrote: post #9

I think 1450 EUR for a 16GB RK3588 is hard to justify. Is the Rockchip open to begin with? I'd go for a framework using the Roma or CIX boards if I wanted to go for an "open hardware but not really" goal.

You're paying for significant ground-up R&D and manufacturing costs that only marginally benefit from any economies of scale. (It's also an incredibly fucking robust machine!) This is not a MacBook Neo competitor. I think if it more as a product for the person who is bored of their quad core-swapped, nitrocaster-modded, corebooted ThinkPad X230, and wants a new, weirder toy laptop to hack around on.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#97

Post by jcgl »

stonogo wrote: post #36
miladyincontrol wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, being weaker than an N100 I would argue by large it is already ewaste compared to just getting an old thinkpad or similar. Its over engineered in some ways and woefully under engineered in others. Any real effort in making it more performant or trying to extend it's life will just generate more additional ewaste than it will save by just reusing existing hardware.

Good luck reusing that existing hardware when the bespoke battery is no longer available. As far as I know this is the only laptop maker with an open-access (open source?) charging circuit, no reverse-engineering needed. Also there's a user story out there where a laptop is a mobile terminal and the actual processing power happens remotely in the cloud. With modern agentic workflows and how fast they're changing it m…

Depending on the model though, aftermarket (or even new old stock) is readily available. If you buy used business class laptops like I do, you’re all but guaranteed to be in good shape regarding at least batteries.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#99

Post by fishgoesblub »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #61
vaylian wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also have a small-form-factor stationary computer in the pipeline: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt-research/mnt-station

> 3x USB Type-A ports > 1x USB Type-C for USB-C PD power input and built-in UART-to-USB converters It doesn't seem either present- or future-secure to have only USB-A ports.

A or C you'll have to use a dongle regardless.

Re: MNT Reform is an open hardware laptop, designed and assembled in Germany

#100

Post by MetaWhirledPeas »

dharmatech wrote: post #58
ryukafalz wrote: post #50

Typing this from a Pocket Reform right now. The two non-work devices I use most often are this and the Reform 2, and I've upgraded both to various degrees over time. I plan to swap modules between them at some point soon so I can have the Pocket Reform be the faster of the two. I should really write up a long-term review of this thing at some point, but overall I love it. It can be a bit rough around the edges at tim…

How was the process of getting used to the ortholinear keyboard?

For me it was a blast. You just gotta embrace it. I can go back to a staggered board, no problem, but I prefer to use a Planck-like 47-key layout. If nothing else it's just more fun. Put a lot of thought into your layout and don't be afraid to scrap it all and start over.
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