I just wanted to let people know we have a new laptop available in Shop ->
Notebook Computers:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
As is always the case we've made sure that all the chipsets used are free
software friendly and work in Trisquel. We have also avoided utilizing CPU's
with "Trusted Computing Technology":
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html
The Emperor Penguin Laptop has got some nice features that a lot of people
have been waiting for.
These including:
15.6" 1366x768
B9xx/i3/i5/i7 (although no i7 CPUs yet without "Trusted Computing"- working
on it)
Up to 16GB DDR3
2x USB 3.0 ports
2x USB 2.0 ports
10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
Matte Screen Option
We don't yet have a new 13.3" model nor a 15.6" model with a 1200x900
resolution screen. We are still waiting on the production of certain
components for these upcoming models.
We also have confirmation on another new 15.6" model with similar
specifications that will be available in coming days. The main difference is
it'll be available with a non-US keyboard layout and ship from the UK. If
there is demand we might start stocking it from the US as well. You will be
able to purchase it regardless of where you live and the shipping time should
be 1-5 days within Europe (probably). From the UK to the US the ship time is
about a day (although might be 1-3 in some cases). What isn't confirmed yet
are what actual keyboards will be available. I believe Spanish/UK/ and US
layouts will be available at a minimum. Possibly others. We are still
finalizing the shipping options, prices, configuration options, and other
processes as we have not shipped laptops from the UK before.
On another topic we are also making some new products available from the UK
that have previously only been available from our US warehouse. They should
be available within a week or so. This includes a 56K dial-up modem, 3D
accelerated graphics card, and PCI/PCIe wireless card with low profile
bracket. There may be some other items I'm missing from this list.
I'm also going to shoot for expanding the selection of products available
from the UK. Hopefully we can go from 90-95% to 98% in the coming months.
Unfortunately due to Europe's diversity some products may not ultimately be
cost effective for us to ship from the UK. At least not to other EU
destinations. We will continue focusing on expanding our support for
non-English speaking countries as the desktop GNU/Linux market develops.
There is work in progress on a new site that will better support the EU and
target other regions.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone for making ThinkPenguin such a
success. This community has done more for GNU/Linux hardware than I could
ever have imagined. It's a growing thriving community despite the blimps and
malicious actors taking aim at it and we will continue to support Trisquel
and other free software distributions (as resources open up).
One last comment: While all the major chipsets are free software compatible
these laptops do not ship with a free BIOS / or other microcode. It is simply
not feasible at this time although we will continue to evaluate the situation
and make every effort to free components/BIOS/and other micro code.
As far as a new wireless N USB chipset goes the effort is ongoing. It will
take at least 3 1/2 months+ for manufacturing of the USB dongle. And we are
still working out the source code situation. And then form there it'll be a
bit longer before you will see out of the box support in Trisquel.
We do still have plenty of stock of the one Wireless N USB adapter with the
older free software friendly chipset.
