I'll give you the tl;dr first. 1) I'm very happy with the available software
choices within Free Software, including Trisquel. 2) Hardware, under the
hood, pretty much the same.
But: 3) Form factors and external build quality are still almost
deal-breakingly bad out there.
Now the (very) long version.
1996-2004: Eight years almost exclusively a Windows user.
2004-2012 Eight years almost exclusively a Mac user.
Xmas 2012, I'm well fed up with both mega-corps and very motivated to replace
my six-year-old G4 Powerbook laptop with a high-quality, free hardware
machine that's multi-distro capable out of the box.
I distro-hop via USB stick. I find operating systems I like just as well as
OSX Tiger--better, on some points (KDE and XFCE let you customize especially
well), a little worse on others (no drop-in replacement for Little Snitch and
a couple other apps).
I read a lot, most importantly on this forum, and it seems I can pay $600 for
a stock retail laptop, and maybe figure out which ones will mostly work with
most distros ... or, I can drop $1200 and get one that specs out a little
better, and more importantly comes with a reasonable expectation of working
with any free operating system.
I decide to pay the big bucks. Maybe not the smart choice, but worth it to
me. If I pay too much, I'll consider the overpayment a donation to the Good
Fight.
I settle on a TP Royal Penguin, top of the line, maxed out. I add a printer,
and a second pre-installed distro, and $1400 goes off to New Jersey.
It arrives quickly, it works great, and it's beautiful. Doesn't seem too
fragile. But ... it has one horrifying flaw.
The ultra-thin keyboard that comes with this ultra-thin laptop is REALLY
noisy and cheap-feeling. I'm used to aluminum keys and zero noise. Typing on
the Royal, to me, sounds and feels exactly like pushing a shopping cart with
a bad wheel. Clatter-racket-clatter-BUMP. There is just no way I'm going to
be able to use this.
I write Support at TP. The tech is sympathetic. Yep, he had the same reaction
at first, but ... it gets easier to ignore. (I find it hard to believe.) He
assures me that the slightly cheaper, slightly thicker Gentoo model has a
less horrible keyboard, but that I shouldn't expect anywhere near the quality
of keying I've come to expect on my ancient Mac.
In the meantime, my SO falls in love with the Royal. She types with her long
fingernails, and isn't as obsessive as I am about the noise.
We decide she will keep it, and I'll fork out another $1200 for a Gentoo,
fingers crossed.
That weekend, I find the exact printer I just paid TP $75 for ... on a Target
clearance shelf for $23. I bite my lip and soldier on.
In the meantime, I notice that ZAreason.com has one called the Alto. The
closer I look at it, the more it appears to be absolutely identical with the
Gentoo from TP. Same ports in the same places, same range of HDs offered,
everything. Spec'd out almost identically, it's $100 less.
But ... there's that wireless card issue, right? Only TP has the Atheros
offered. Damn.
I shoot zareason an email and explain. Oh sure, they say. We get that
question all the time, and we'll be glad to swap out the wifi card for your
preferred freedom-loving one.
Hmm. Okay.
This time, my $1200 goes to Berkeley. I wait again, and this time the wait is
longer. Speed points to TP.
The Alto arrives, and I'm thrilled again. Looks nice, works good, and this
time the keyboard is acceptable. Not anywhere near great--I will end up
spending another $40 on a wireless one for it--but at least not rattling
garbage. I find myself, though, treating it very gently. It feels ...
fragile. Hard to say why. But I do not feel free to bash-type away on it at
100 wpm like I do the old machine.
28 days later, fragility is confirmed. I pull it out of it's branded ZA
laptop case (another $40), and the hinge is broken. Not snapped, or cracked,
just sprung. I have treated this laptop with great gentleness. It's less than
a month old. I paid through the nose for it. And ... it just broke itself,
inside a padded bag.
That six year old P-book? I paid the same amount for it. I dropped it more
than once, from desk height, hating myself every time it hit the ground. And
after all the battle scars, it was fine. I'm typing this on it right now,
even though I wish I was over on my brand-new machine inside Manjaro or
Trisquel.
The moral of the story, for ZA, and TP, and System76, and LACLinux, is this.
I can't WAIT to give you my money. I LOVE what you're about, philosophically
and commercially. I will HAPPILY overpay for a free as in speech product. But
god. Damn.
I do need to feel that I'm not a complete idiot as a consumer.
Work with me.
Give me a machine that feels like a fat-finned Oldsmobile. That doesn't mind
living in luggage half the day. That can take a punch like Humphrey Bogart.
I'll pay 1500. I'll pay 1800.
But I won't pay a dime more, for noisy plastic crap with a glass jaw.
We don't get fooled again.
--kK
