I upgraded to a Lenovo X60t (with coreboot and L7400 Core 2 Duo CPU), it's much faster.
Loongson 3 computers use AMD GPUs which need nonfree software. Graphics is slow even with the GPU driver using the nonfree firmware. Support in FSF-endorsed distros is mostly dead, mainline kernel support is focused on Loongson 3B CPU, there isn't much work on support for devices outside of Lemote's distro. And currently the laptops are out of stock at Tekmote; K85.com, the other European distributor, doesn't sell Loongson 3 computers since they don't like blobs. Comparing architectures separate from implementations is pointless; MIPS might have educational advantages while there is much less support for it in software not focused on routers and other embedded devices. There are ARM chips at much lower power usage, and both ARM and x86 have well-supported standarized SIMD instruction sets needed for tasks like video decoding. (They also have English documentation of their instructions, unlike Loongson which after 2F has only Chinese manuals.)
pgpciGRSiXzU9.pgp
Description: PGP signature