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Comment by eosrei | Hacker News Reader

I have a Sony Vaio Pro 13.3", 1080P, i7, 256GB SSD, 8GB, 2.3lbs, touchscreen; dual booting, but primarily running in Linux. It will cover me through this entire tech cycle.

The above mentioned "premium fatal flaw" in this case is the terrible internal wifi, but a micro-usb wifi has corrected that. I also fixed IMO the glossy display with a screen protector. Other than those two issues, I really like it.

When it's finally time to replace it I'll be looking at Microsoft or Dell. Maybe even Apple or ASUS. Probably not Lenovo, because they seem to be trying to destroy the Thinkpad brand. If I had to buy a computer right now without further research it would be the Dell XPS 13.

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Another Vaio Pro 13 user here :)

Have you tried the internal Wifi with a newer Linux distribution? I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 and it works great :) No disconnects, speed good be better though ...

Regarding a replacement: What do you think about the Librem 13? It's one of my favorites along with the Dell XPS 13 and the Lenovo X1 Carbon.

I'm running Mint 17.2 which switched to following Ubuntu LTS releases only. So, I haven't tried a newer Ubuntu, but the wifi is terrible in Win8 too. The "Panda Ultra 150Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00762YNMG was my solution for a massive range/reliability increase.

Related: This screen protector makes the glossy display usable outside: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HDTVJKQ

I'm really happy to see the Librem 13 nearing existence, but it's not ideal for me: i5 only, no back-lit keyboard. Up to 16GB and the matte screen is awesome though. The X1 Carbon 1st/3rd Gens are great, but Lenovo is being so bad recently.

The Librem 15 has i7 and backlit keyboard.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/purism/librem-15

I've seen it, but it only runs 6hrs (vs 10-14hr) on the battery, weighs 2X and costs 2X my current machine. Plus 15" is too large. I'm really happy to see the progress on freedom-respecting hardware, I'm just not willing to make that many sacrifices at this time.

FWIW, I have the Dell XPS 13 running Linux (and Windows 10 from a USB 3 SSD), and it's great. I bought the one that comes with a Windows license and installed Fedora 22 on it. It was pretty rough around the edges at first, but with several BIOS upgrades and kernel updates, it runs perfectly now.

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