I have never bought anything from Purism but I have considered it. Now though, I have my doubts.
Any thoughts? Have you dealt with that company or their products? Are they legit?
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It seems Louis has made his feelings towards Purism crystal-clear :)
Purism wants me to DELETE my video exposing their refund scam & delay tactic - answer is NO!
Fair warning: don’t play this with the sound on at the office, especially 16-17m in :)
Purism seemed like my kind of crazy, but I never got the warm fuzzies reading about people’s daily user experience.
In that same vein, Framework is the same kind of crazy, but people had good daily driver feedback, so I actually bought it.
I’m not sure what my thesis is, but I highly value the “I’ve daily driven this for a year and here are my thoughts” type reviews. Especially by someone with basically zero influencer size, with terrible video quality… because I know that will be my lived experience.
Librem may have the right philosophy, but if they don’t treat their customers well… Ir doesn’t matter.the character of a person company isn’t defined when things are going well, but when things are going badly. librem has demonstrated bad character.
In that same vein, Framework is the same kind of crazy, but people had good daily driver feedback, so I actually bought it.
That’s interesting. May I ask what you bought from Framework? I’m on the market for a new laptop that works perfectly with Linux, and as repairable as possible. The 13" laptop from Framework is on my list of potential purchases.
Did you interact with Framework? What do you think of the hardware?
I bought the Framework Laptop 13 (since it was in stock and I don’t have the patience to waitlist).
I did interact with framework, including RMA, and the experience was pretty good.
The hardware is good, and works really well with linux. I’m running Qubes on it, and it works really well. The keyboard feels nice, and the trackpad is pretty good (not Apple good, but 80%). I’m still using the laptop everyday, no complaints.
My laptop worked for a day, then I had a issue with the system not using the battery at all. I worked with the Framework support channel, and they had me go through lots of manual testing, but after about 2 weeks of testing various setups, firmware, manually disconnecting the battery, etc, they sent me a new base laptop. The replacement works great. Overall, since its a DIY laptop, I think the support was appropriate to ask me to do all the debugging and I’m happy with the experience.
Minor complaints: On Laptop 13 they used a re-chargeable bios battery which complicated the battery charging issue (the bios battery didn’t charge from the battery, and if the bios battery is drained the laptop wouldn’t boot). I hope in newer models they address this design choice.
I was on a trip in Japan when I had the issue (got the laptop right before I left), and their USA ONLY, not for international markets stance was annoying. I totally understand they don’t want to ship internationally as that adds customs complication, and shipping cost, but don’t gate keep support based on location.
Their “We are not going to do opencore/openboot/open firmware STOP ASKING”, feels like bad marketing to their initial core audience/advocates. I think the openboot cheerleaders were getting a bit too emphatic in their github discussion, but the way they shut the conversation down left a sour taste in my mouth
Overall - I recommend Framework.
Nice! Thanks for the detailed reply.
What the BIOS battery charge out of them? Does it charge with a separate charging circuit when you plug the laptop in? Unless you have to pull it out and charge it outside the laptop, or it charges much slower than the main battery, I struggle to understand how it can ever become discharged before the main battery.
The Laptop 13 bios battery only charged off external USB-C power. I’m sure they are going to change this.
So in shipping the bios battery could get low, and if you run your new laptop down to zero off the battery, you could in theory exhaust the bios battery putting it into a weird state. Because the rechargeable battery doesn’t hold as much charge as a normal non-rechargeable bios battery it needs to be recharged at least every two weeks (or something surprisingly short).
So if you don’t use your laptop for a long time, you could get into the state where you can’t boot it until you charge the bios battery with external power for 24 hours.
I didn’t run into this exact issue, but it complicated the debugging of my can’t use the battery at all problem.
Ah right okay. Well it’s not like you can brick the laptop at least. As long as you’re aware of the issue, I guess it’s okay. Thanks!
I haven’t. I considered it last year, and people had been waiting years. Very little real people seemed to get hold of them. The ones that did seem to get them where influential devs and people with online platforms.
I decided instead to buy a Pinephone. I received a Pinephone and it’s pretty cool hardware. Obviously low spec and the software isn’t quite mature. I felt it would be more likely Pinephone would likely come up with a better phone and deliver it before some customers got their Librem 5s. The Pinephone Pro was announced and it seems more folk got a Pinephone Pro delivered than a Librem 5 despite them having years head start. It seems that way from what I’ve seen.
I personally wouldn’t touch Purism with a barge pole. At least Pine64 deliver to customers without stringing them along.
It would take a lot of deliveries, a massive backlog clearing and some clear acceptance and apologies for past behaviour for me to even consider buying from Purism, and then, probably not even then. If I was to invest in another Linux phone, it would probably be a Pinephone Pro unless device support improves for other hardware.
AFAIK Librem were fine until they started to ship the actual hardware of the Librem 5. I know they sponsored or directly contributed to the software side of mobile Gnome and KDE Plasma mobile which is commendable. But I have heard a lot of issues with people not getting their Librem 5 for a long time now. Also if what Rossmann says is true about the security flaws then it doesn’t look good for Librem.
Luckily if you really want a Linux phone there are at least some alternatives now like the Pinephone or Pinephone Pro, or getting a phone supported by Postmarket OS.
Luckily if you really want a Linux phone
I don’t. I considered their laptops. But if the company is flaky, I’ll pass.
The reason I’m not interested in a Linux phone is because, sadly, I need a reliable daily driver phone that can run banking and official state apps on that are only distributed for Android and iOS. Mobile Linux is nowhere near as polished as Android and said apps don’t work in WayDroid / AnBox (I tried). So sadly, I need to run Android - albeit degoogled.
Chicken and egg problem: Linux on cellphones sucks because it’s not widely adopted (if it was, my bank would release a Linux version of their app) and it’s not widely adopted because it sucks.
The only thing i know about the phone is thatTechloree has complained about them ib the past.
You should watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prNeLzMbytU
Thanks for sharing. After watching the vid and reading these comments I am surprised. I thought they had a pretty good product 🤯
