A Kubuntu-Powered Laptop Is Launching In 2020 For High-End KDE Computing

[JanW]

starshipeleven Yes, I have a 97Wh battery in my Dell. For the Clevo I have seen 57Wh quoted elsewhere, but I guess 62 or 57 does not really matter. It's small. The Clevo is an almost-always-plugged gaming machine of which no one expects significant battery life.

From my perspective, MindShareManagement may be wrong about the needs of their target market. Professionals buying a Laptop do not buy it because they sometimes prefer to sit on the sofa with it for two hours. They travel, they work on-site, they go to conferences and trade shows. If you don't get through a work day of very light usage while having the computing power once you plug in, you lose many potential customers. Say what you will about Apple, they do understand their target market, and there is a reason they offer adequate battery life.

[markc]

4K screen option or it doesn't exist.

[Danny3]

This laptop is clearly DOA (Dead On Arrival) because
Intel (Multiple security vulnerabilities and lower performance than AMD Ryzen 3000 series)
Nvidia (very low quality of open source driver because of their anti open source attitude)
Google Chrome (spyware collecting all sorts of data for Google, they shouldn't changed Firefox or changed with ungoogled-chromium)
KDE Plasma made worse (the good default of bottom taskbar changed to right side which makes the quick top-right corner click to close maximized windows useless)

I was first happy to hear that somebody was smart enough to put Kubuntu by default on it, but the specs and the changes are a huge disappointment.

[M@GOid]

I can see the reasoning for the decisions made on that laptop. People with good experience on Linux can choose to use whatever suit their needs (or fetishes), but that doesn't fly on any reasonable organised company. You can spit all you want on Ubuntu and Canonical, but they are the de facto "Linux", besides Red Hat, on the business world. Look at any comercial or scientific software out there. They always support those 2. If you are lucky they may support a easy one like Debian or Opensuse, but just because they have the same package system as Ubuntu and Red Hat.

As for the hardware supplier, there isn't much of a choice. IFAIK, even System 76 and Librem laptops are re-branded Clevos. I too would prefer AMD trough and trough here, but lets not pretend that Intel and Nvidia are not the kings on their offerings on the Laptop segment. They work very well and if this guy is trying to run a business and not follow the RS cult, is hard not to take the same decisions he made.

I for one welcome any KDE based system, regardless of the hardware.

[arun54321]

Linux laptop with nvidia gpu.

[cybertraveler]

We aren't targeting religious zealots who use Windows at work and then tinker with a Linux desktop when they get home. We are chasing highly paid professionals that need their system to work every day and work very well. And that's what we're providing.

We aren't targeting religious zealots who use Windows at work and then tinker with a Linux desktop when they get home. We are chasing highly paid professionals that need their system to work every day and work very well. And that's what we're providing.

If that's how you want to frame people who seek a fully Open Source / Free Software stack, then fair enough.

Speaking for myself only. I am not a religious zealot, and I would never even consider buying a laptop with an NVIDIA GPU for reasons of compatibility, security, privacy, long-term hardware usage and support (e.g. getting bug fixes from distro maintainers / Valve / others).

Also: I live by the principle that if I want the world to be better I should put my resources towards the things that make it better. Intel and AMD are both making the world better (in my view) via their Open Source desktop GPU driver contributions to the GNU/Linux world. They play well with the whole ecosystem too.

[Mario Junior]

>nvidia
>kde
Oh boy... 🙄

[kpedersen]

We aren't targeting religious zealots who use Windows at work and then tinker with a Linux desktop when they get home. We are chasing highly paid professionals that need their system to work every day and work very well. And that's what we're providing.

If mobility is needed, a *nix focused company will supply their "highly paid professionals" with a Thinkpad.

Other than high compatibility with Linux/BSD, there is nothing exceptional about a Thinkpad and this choice by companies is mostly down to this but nonetheless, you have no market unless you can provide something of more value than this.

(The Thinkpad is only well supported with Linux because naturally many developers have these devices (because of the good support) and use it as a point of reference for future improvements causing this endless cycle that Lenovo is greatly benefiting from. You will find it very hard to break into this monopoly).

Which leads me to believe that if you can't compete with the latter market; possibly you could market these certified "Linux gaming laptops" towards the "beginner zealots" who want to move away from Windows but don't necessarily yet realize the issues with ME or proprietary blobs. I believe there truly is a market in "Microsoft Escapees". However you might want to approach them in a slightly more friendly and fun manner.

[madscientist159]

https://twitter.com/rootkovska/statu...008395264?s=20

Yes, if you are an OEM (or the ME is new enough to support the "disable bit" mandated by USA gov) you can. For board init you need blobs anyway, after board init a "disabled" ME will hang and stop responding to anything.

But that's not disabled as the word is commonly used, is it? Redefining terms for marketing purposes helps no one.

If the ME were actually disabled, Joanna wouldn't be saying its still hackable in the HAP state, right?

https://mobile.twitter.com/rootkovska/status/939064351008395264

[madscientist159]

System76 were selling laptops with disabled ME on 6th-8th gen core processors.

However I don't think they are currently on their 10th gen models.
EDIT- They are, see the "security" line under specs. https://system76.com/laptops/darter

You're not using the word "disabled" according to either the common definition or the dictionary definition. Certain companies and individuals redefined the word "disabled" for marketing purposes (see above), which should throw all of their claims into serious doubt -- once you quietly redefine one word, why not others including "security" and "update", for instance?

That said, I don't see any claims of a " disabled" ME on that page. I do see highly questionable claims of "open" and "secure" firmware (the ME is closed, signed, and locked, so not open or externally auditable at all) but no claims worse than that are immediately obvious.