Having taken a second look at the Gazelle Professional, I have found they
offer a single processor (the default included one, an i7-4700MQ) without
vPro, according to http://tinyurl.com/lsll84p. It's the same speed as
ThinkPenguin's fastest available processor for the King and a generation
ahead (so maybe just a little bit faster). So that is no longer a problem.
Just in case you want to include them in the future, browsing through a list
of 4th generation Intel processors I found a bunch
(http://tinyurl.com/lgg4kg3, http://tinyurl.com/m45kh8k,
http://tinyurl.com/lvworpx, http://tinyurl.com/kt8mom3,
http://tinyurl.com/m2hxpeg, http://tinyurl.com/l3lp9ju,
http://tinyurl.com/lmwnba9, http://tinyurl.com/mwgu3dc, and the one above
http://tinyurl.com/lsll84p) without vPro. I hope this may be useful to you.
I've contacted System76 about the wireless card issue and various other
things. (I'm assuming the "digital handcuffs"/Netflix you briefly mentioned
and the CPU issue are one and the same.)
