As per my opinion on this, I'd rather see people not have knee-jerk reactions to Lenovo screwing up Linux support and people rushing for "alternatives", but rather make a concerted effort to support companies focused on Linux-supported hardware (for the long-term).
Also, this story combined with the HP printer story really makes you wonder why hardware manufacturers are going backwards towards locked-systems when their software divisions "embrace the world of open source". Hardware really is the final frontier for open-source.
Have system76 laptops improved at all over the last few years? The last couple of laptop upgrade cycles I looked at them and the general consensus was that they were a overpriced for the hardware, and had really shoddy build quality and bad customer service.
Thanks for the link, these seem pretty cool. I guess the reason people here recommend the Dell XPS is because it has features that appeal and are valuable to a certain demographic.
My first laptop was a Dell Latitude E6320. Inconspicuous. Magnesium and brushed aluminum. You wouldn't know until you touched it. SIM card slot where the battery fits, so 3G connectivity. Good plastics (firm and not wobbly, short travel distance up and down, gives it a "critically damped oscillation" feel). And, 180° opening. The keyboard and screen can be on the same plane. You can do many things with that and it's only when you try to work with a non 180° that you notice how great that feature is.
Example: Open it at slightly less than 180° on my lap, rotate it 90° counterclockwise, then rotate the PDF 90° clockwise. Now I have a sort of book with an 'A4'ish page on my left (the screen) and write on the notepad that's sitting on the keyboard. If I invert the colors on the PDF (page in black, text in white), it can be really nice.
I've heard some good and bad reviews about system76 and zareason. I'm currently considering the Librem 13 on https://puri.sm/ for when they come out in october.
Why doesn't puri.sm even include an Ethernet port in their premium product Librem 15 and in Librem 11 (though they do in Librem 13); cf. https://puri.sm/store/. There are very good reasons to use ethernet and strongly avoid use of WiFi if you are serious about privacy. For example consider slides 69-76 of http://de.slideshare.net/grugq/opsec-for-hackers, where the FBI could see when there was data sent/received by simply looking at when there was activity in the suspect's private WLAN (something that is not possible in this form for ethernet) and decorrelate it to his TOR activity.
Thanks for the link. Seeing such companies makes me confident that there will be always alternatives whatever the limitations put by so-said-brand manufacturers are.
It shouldn't make you confident. In the economy of scales involved, it takes very little for system76 to disappear and dell to stop selling linux laptops.
There are a bunch of Linux laptops for sale these days, they're called "Chromebooks".
You can install crouton to get a regular Linux environment.
There are limitations, of course. Especially if you want a lot of processing power. The primary places I use my Chromebook are where I have Internet connectivity, so I decided not to carry around all the computer power I need on a regular basis.
Just as a FWIW, here is another option:
https://system76.com/
As per my opinion on this, I'd rather see people not have knee-jerk reactions to Lenovo screwing up Linux support and people rushing for "alternatives", but rather make a concerted effort to support companies focused on Linux-supported hardware (for the long-term).
Also, this story combined with the HP printer story really makes you wonder why hardware manufacturers are going backwards towards locked-systems when their software divisions "embrace the world of open source". Hardware really is the final frontier for open-source.