I finally received my Purism laptop after a good mate of mine gave me the push I needed. I was nervous, it was an expensive piece of machinery, and didn’t really do anything that any other laptop did. I mean it was fully open source, so that was pretty cool, and it has hardware kill switches which are epic. Were these enough to justify the > $2k AUD price tag? Yes!
The machine is brilliant, I love it, the keyboard is a joy to type on with plenty of travel, but it is a bit more than just a $2,000 keyboard. It has helped me learn so much about computers, and that arguably cannot be priced. As earlier articles detail, I have learned to flash a BIOS and get the Librem Key to work…and as I type this I am considering loading QubesOS again, and testing it one more time. Like a moth to a flame, I am drawn to Qubes…
However, with the Purism laptop being all open source it means I can literally change the hardware. The screws on the bottom are normal, the interior is well documented and easily accessible, it is my computer and I can do with it as I want.
Everything it oes it does fast enough for me, but it had want to with 32gb or RAM installed! Th fan only occassionally kicks in to gear, but when it does it is definitely audible, and sometimes I feel runs a little longer than it should. These are small prices to pay for me.
The looks of the machine is a pure stealth bomb. All black, no logos, nothing…except for fingerprints of which it is a magnet for these! They are pretty tough to clean off too I might add, being a full metal chassis. That in itself is a massive positive, the build quality is first class and it does feel like a $2,000 machine!
I will say that it took a long time to get to me, but as I was lucky enough to have other computers at hand this was not a huge issue, more of an inconvenience. The wait was worth it, in more ways than one. I got this machine to be my security pentesting daily driver, and so got the Librem Key too; all of which came individually sealed in vacuum bags. I was impressed. I thought for security my Librem Key would be shipped separate and must admit was a little disappointed when told they would not be. Obviously my concerns were alleviated once I opened the box and was able to verify from the packaging that my machine had not been tampered with. Kudos to you Purism!! Why did I ever doubt you.
In short this machine is fantastic!! Is it worth the $2k? Honestly, no. I did it because I am a fan of Purism and what they stand for. Thanksfully the machine has not disappointed yet, and the investment seems justified to me. I would recommend it, but only to those dedicated to the FLOSS philosophy or super security conscious; otherwise any other capable Linux box will be just as good!
I am happy, and I’ll continue to mod and test this stealthy looking box out, and really put to work that 32gb!
I will update this as I go, as I appreciate two weeks is an insufficient time to evaluate fully, and a lot of things can happen. Hopefully not though! I would give this machine 8.5, with the only reason it is not a 10 is because of the price. I should mention the 13” I am rolling with is only 1920 x 1080 display – so not the best fir graphics and such, but I spend most of my time in the shell, so is fine for that. If graphics are your thing, I’d go the 15 inch model which has a 4k display.
chameo
Latest posts by chameo (see all)
- udemy v itpro.tv // a battle royale - June 11, 2019
- purism librem 13 // my very own fingerprint magnet - June 8, 2019
- qubesos, a bridge too far - June 6, 2019