
Librem Mini: A mini-PC that puts freedom, privacy and security first - spking
https://puri.sm/products/librem-mini/
======
hajile
They need to put a Ryzen 4800h or U if they want to interest me. I've owned a
couple Intel NUCs and the GPU performance just sucks too much.

------
dangus
A nitpick: The Mac mini doesn’t have an external power brick right? So this
isn’t really smaller than a Mac mini, it just moves the power supply outside
the computer.

I like what Purism is doing in regard to disabling the Intel ME and having
more open source boot components, but there’s something about the company that
rubs me the wrong way (especially with the continual overpromising on the
Librem 5, and really, releasing it in its current state at all).

~~~
fsflover
>overpromising on the Librem 5, and really, releasing it in its current state
at all

It was not actually released to the general public yet. Only limited batches
with opt-in.

~~~
dangus
That’s not really how their marketing website frames it.

It says it’s a great choice for parents, enterprises and businesses of all
sizes.

It’s got a shop now link and you can add the phone to your cart, shipping in 6
months. The batch FAQ says that every phone shipped is a high quality
smartphone despite the “loose fit” components.

> Q: If I receive the Librem 5 from one of the first batches, will I have a
> fully functional phone?

> A: Yes! Even the very earliest batches will be capable smartphone, including
> a modern web browser and core cell phone functionality.

In contrast, reviews from as recent as March 2020 state that the phone can’t
make phone calls and the battery lasts for about two hours maximum:

[https://www.techrepublic.com/article/librem-5-review-the-
lin...](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/librem-5-review-the-linux-based-
smartphone-is-not-close-to-consumer-ready/)

Look, I want this kind of phone as much as the next person, but that doesn’t
mean I want to buy it from a company that is misleading at best about its
capabilities. I know that smartphone hardware, especially smartphone hardware
with custom open source components, is not easy. But this is a prototype-level
device that shouldn’t be marketed in this way. It should be called the “Librem
5 preview development kit“ at best.

~~~
fsflover
Their marketing is definitely not perfect, but the early batches do have a web
browser and core cell phone functionality. Even though the latter not from the
very start. Phone calls already work according to several Youtube reviews.

Battery life is definitely still a problem. But software updates should
significantly improve it. The main problem is that all CPUs are constantly on
even when the screen is off...

Otherwise, in 6 month we indeed expect the final batch usable by "parents,
enterprises and businesses of all sizes".

~~~
mac01021
What amount of battery life do you expect to be achievable for "Evergreen"?

~~~
fsflover
I am no expert on anything related. They say the following:

"The goal is clear, make the Librem 5 last at least a day of regular use. "

[https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-power-management-
improvements...](https://puri.sm/posts/librem-5-power-management-improvements-
up-to-jan-2020/)

------
dkdk8283
I wholly support projects like these but I wonder if wanting to do the right
thing is enough.

Large hardware companies have lots of resources to invest in reviewing and
testing their products, even though they don’t prioritize the ideals of
Librem.

Is this really a net win?

------
ilaksh
Check out the DeskMini A300. The AMD integrated graphics are vastly superior
to Intel.

~~~
38911BBF
I'm using one as my work desktop and it's a very nice unit. It will not do
Hyper-V for some reason but it'll run 4-6 VMWare instances just fine.

The double M2-SSD and double 2.5" SATA for RAID is also great in such a tiny
box.

I really hope a new BIOS will make it compatible with the Ryzen 4000 desktop
APUs when they arrive later this year.

~~~
emptysongglass
Would the Renoir desktop APUs make such a thing VR-ready? I'm looking for a
cheap-enough box for working in the VR window manager Simula.

~~~
throwaway-9320
The available power budget and memory bandwidth will be the limiting factors
for those new APU-s, just like for the current generation. Given the
performance requirements that I have seen for VR I don't think the new APU-s
will be able to reach that performance level.

For something less demanding it could be OK, not sure where your use case
would fit in the performance requirement scale though.

LowSpecGamer did an experiment with VR and Ryzen APU-s, if you want to get an
idea of what performance to expect:
[https://youtu.be/huT6fp7nzwA](https://youtu.be/huT6fp7nzwA)

------
user_agent
Hmmm.... I definitely need a "secure", separated computer like that. The
presented form factor is ideal, but the price is meh. 1,177 USD for 32GB RAM
and a nice 512GB NVMe storage. That's too much. It's the same problem like
with that German company that sells workstations with Coreboot, also for a
little bit too much.

I need at least 24GB RAM and a good NVMe drive for Qube OS. The processor
isn't that much important, though. I could live with i5 as well. The best
solution I came up with for now is an old Intel Core 2 Quad processor + old
Asus motherboard (Coreboot supported) that supports 32GB of RAM. Plus an NVMe
drive on a PCI slot. The good side is that it's commonly known Core 2 Quad was
the last "secure" Intel processor. Yet it's old and will be a little bit to
slow for extensive virtualization.

People know a thing or two about Coreboot and Libreboot, but they don't
realize that's still a wild west of computing. You either go with old
platforms like the one I have mentioned, or you can choose from the offerings
of a couple of quirky vendors that by definition must overprice their
hardware. Those vendors and their new platforms (Purism is one of them) use
some custom methods to cripple Intel Management Engine and switch UEFI to
Coreboot. I'm not sure how secure the result of that process is to be honest.
With old platforms it's always problem with motherboards supporting more than
8GB RAM. Kinda sad :(

The support from Coreboot isn't that great. It fits within the abovely
mentioned problems.

If you have better ideas than me (complaining for the pricing and security
status of new solutions like the one from Purism vs. suffering from
virtualization low performance from old processors that are IME free) - please
let me know. Maybe I'm missing something.

I'd be so happy to be able to get a new mini PC with let's say an AMD
processor, deprived of RAM, SSD, etc.,; but also reasonably priced and PROVEN
THAT the vendor managed to kill IME and implemented Coreboot properly...

------
maxnoe
It says Intel i7 and core boot.

How does that fit together with yesterday's discussion of coreboot not
supporting anything Intel from 2008 or newer?

~~~
asiekierka
Libreboot does not support modern Intel hardware, as it refuses to include
proprietary binary blobs. Coreboot is another story entirely.

------
leashless
What are the odds the USB C port will drive a Thunderbolt display?

------
tester89
Only 1 USB Type-C port? Yeah, no,

~~~
lasagnaphil
Are multiple USB Type-C ports really that necessary? Seeing that there are an
additional 4 USB3 ports, I thought that would be enough for most people.

~~~
cerberusss
Not parent but I think I made the step too early. Since I got my MacBook Pro
in 2016, I decided to replace my cables with USB-C versions. That's all very
nice, but now I prefer new hardware to have as much USB-C ports as possible.

------
beamatronic
How do you cool it? Fans or fanless?

~~~
muditmudit
It says on [https://puri.sm/products/librem-
mini](https://puri.sm/products/librem-mini) "Active (fan) Cooling".

