Hacker News Reader

Comment by grigio | Hacker News Reader

I hope one day to upgrade my laptop to a Honor/Huawei AMD Ryzen AI computer to run Linux. Modern Macbooks unfortunatly do not run Linux and the other laptop manifacturers basically produce expensive trash laptops

View on HN

In case you hadn't heard of Framework, they're making modular laptops with the intention of reducing e-waste.

http://framework.computer

Repairable laptops don't reduce e-waste. You replace the mainboard and then what? You have a spare mainboard that sits there collecting dust. The best way to prevent e-waste is to build durable laptops that last a lifetime. Like Dell, HP and Lenovo have been doing for years (while also being very repairable at the same time).

We have open source documentation and CAD around the Mainboards to enable people to reuse them as single board computers or mini PCs after upgrading them out of their laptops. Even if the original owner of the Mainboard has no use for that, the functionality means it has resale value for others to use, reducing waste.

Frameworks computers are expensive, you aren't reducing the e-waste because on amd ryzen ai laptops the ram is soldered like in the other laptops from other manifacturers

Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good. They're expensive because they don't have the volume that other manufacturers have. If you dig in my comment history, you'll see me complain about the soldered in ram as well, and some of their other decisions. However their modular configuration is still better than the rest of them.

Lenovo t14 AMD Ryzen AI has replaceable RAM DDR5-5.600MT/s (SODIMM)

That is incorrect. All of our laptops have modular, upgradable memory. Our Framework Desktop is a mini PC that does not because AMD’s Ryzen AI Max platform doesn’t support it. Regardless, we maximized modularity and reuseability on that product too by following PC standards. It uses a MiniITX form factor, standard 120mm fan, and FlexATX power supply.

Modern MacBooks DO run Linux

Check out https://asahilinux.org/

> Supported processors - M1 and M2, not M3 or M4

The M2 models came out in 2022. You can't buy them new anymore.

Asahi linux doesn't support any of the currently sold macbooks, so I think it's fair to say modern macbooks don't run linux.

This is also at Apple's mercy, if enough people do it there's a non-zero chance they lock things down further. They've done even more consumer-unfriendly things before.

Looking at the support page, that comes with a lot of asterisks still.

Not really, it's a nice tech demo at best.

What's so great about Huawei laptops?

I've been using an Asus EliteBook for the last 3 years. Despite taking a beating, the build quality has held up flawlessly and with 32 GB of RAM, 1 kg form factor, and great battery life, I have no reason to upgrade yet.

> What's so great about Huawei laptops?

Unlike other laptops, there is always the lingering fear of a Chinese backdoor.

Because we all know ASUS doesn't install backdoors by default...

Backdoors in the OS or firmware?

I always use Linux, so I don't care what software it came with. If you're suggesting there are firmware backdoors, I'd like to see your evidence.

There have been known vulnerabilities in ASUS firmware, but I was referring to Armoury Crate which is forcefully pushed on Windows users.

> I'd like to see your evidence.

I think this is a really bad epistemological stance in this case.

A vulnerability (that is presumably fixed after) is a lot different than an intentional backdoor.

> I think this is a really bad epistemological stance in this case.

Why? If one can't point to any evidence, how is it reasonable to suggest that a manufacturer is adding backdoors?

I'd rather be concerned about friendly fire from our own. As an US American, i'd rather be concerned about big tech and government backdoors than anything else. Especially in the current atmosphere of doom inside the US.

>As an US American

I have my doubts

Pretty sure GP meant "if I were American..."

Thanks for putting this into the correct perspective.

Build quality is better and do not have USA backdoors

Nonsense. I've been running Linux just fine as my daily driver on Macbook M4 for a year. Besides battery life (VM is kinda heavy on it) and some minor issues (fewer than you'd think, especially with Vulkan landing in UTM today) it's the best Linux laptop I've owned ever so far. I like macOS as much as the next Linux user here, but it's fairly decent as a hypervisor. If anything, at least it comes with UI unlike Intel ME.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com