On Sat, 25 Apr 2026 11:46, Aryan Karamtoth <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello fellow developers and maintainers as well as the DPL,
Framework caught my attention recently as I discovered that they have a
12'' inch version of their laptop line up and I was curious about the
Linux compatibility on their laptops and I came to know that they
officially support Fedora, Ubuntu and Bazzite but they also listed Mint,
Arch and NixOS as community supported ones [1].
I agree with Chris here. Endorsing a dev whose values are known to be
deeply racist is very questionable.
This could've been an honest mistake; however the least they could've
done is apologize and rescind the endorsement.
Anyway, I am not here to discuss Frameworks misgivings.
Regardless, I find this an important topic; if hardware has Debian
preinstalled, this a) helps us and b) eventually gets more people to use
Linux.
I would like to suggest a different company: Star Labs
[0]. They are a small UK-based company also
catering to linux-first devices. While it's not modular as the Framework
it is still really good in terms of repairability and privacy (hardware
kill switches).
Furthermore, their support has been excellent. Disclaimer: I am owning a
StarBook MK VI which is my main computing device since 2 years now.
A few datapoints:
- Battery life is fairly decent (~5 h medium usage under sway)
- Everything just works ootb (hardware-wise)
- The intel models are available with coreboot
- Every single part can be purchased as spare/replacement
- The bottom and lid is made out of aluminum and it's fairly
scratch-resistant
The only complaint that I have that the screen could be brighter, and
that the rubber feet tend to get loose.
(I really should write a blogpost at some point about it)
best,
werdahias
Links:
[0]: https://de.starlabs.systems/
