This Thing Sucks

So its been a little over a year since I wrote this post about the Purism Librem 15. And, unfortunately, I have to write a follow-up.

After that just-over-a-year of fairly light use¹, this machine is in pretty rotten shape. The metal chassis is scuffed and scratched in lots of places, making it look very unkempt. The trackpad never did end up working right, the connecting screws fell out quite a number of times. Finally, a couple days ago, the monitor case cracked enough to cause a black column about 2cm wide on the left of the built-in screen. I figured I could use it grudgingly a bit more, but earlier today, the screen broke entirely.

So that's the state of play. At this point, the machine "works" in the sense that, if I connect it to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, it can replace a desktop. Which is exactly how I'm using it right now. Having owned several Lenovo and OCZ machines in the past, the Purism Librem 15 has been the single biggest disappointment for me in terms of utility per dollar. Not only was the pre-order unit quite a bit more expensive than the Lenovo offering, it almost completely crapped out after a single year of light use.

My plan at the moment is to press my old Lenovo x220 back into service until I decide what the hell to do long-term. This is a completely ridiculous situation. Given the amount of trouble I've had essentially in exchange for Free network drivers, I can't in good conscience recommend that you make this purchase yourself.

1. By which I mean "computationally heavy, but physically light" use. It spent most of its time in a padded backpack compartment, coming out only onto flat, hard surfaces, and a very occasional lap. No heavy traveling, no physical pressure put on it, nothing that hasn't been endured for many years by still-working computers I own.↩