It's really going to be absolutely critical that we be able to hack on and trust the hardware we use.

[cwebber@social.coop]

It's really going to be absolutely critical that we be able to hack on and trust the hardware we use. I really think the hardware from MNT is the best bet we have for a computing future we still have a say in https://mnt.re/

I'm hoping the MNT Reform Next is going to make MNT's stuff more accessible to a wider variety of people

[be@floss.social]

@cwebber I hope they make a normal sized laptop.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@be That's what the MNT Reform Next is (mostly)! https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/mnt-reform-next

It's about the form-factor of a 200X era Thinkpad

[sobex@social.sciences.re]

@cwebber Is this a subtoot on #framework / #FrameworkLaptop ?

[cwebber@social.coop]

@Sobex It's not necessarily, I have been advocating MNT's stuff for a long time.

But let me say that I think that if you *are* disappointed with Framework's actions then consider that MNT is:

- An indie, queer open hardware shop based out of Berlin
- All of their stuff really is as open hardware as they can make it
- The community is just lovely

[cwebber@social.coop]

@Sobex The downsides for MNT, if you're looking for a drop-in replacement:

- There's no current x86 offering, if that's important to you
- You *will* have to hack it at some point probably, but it's highly hackable!
- The MNT Reform Next isn't out yet, so either you have this incredibly cute pocket computer, or you have the chonker "brutalist" (but highly hackable) original MNT Reform

[sobex@social.sciences.re]

@cwebber What ISA is it o.O ?

[jorgecandeias@mastodon.social]

@cwebber @Sobex There's one other major downside: the price.

[sobex@social.sciences.re]

@jorgecandeias @cwebber Is it even worse price wise than Framework ?

(Which is known to be a fair bit more expensive than the x86 competition).

[jorgecandeias@mastodon.social]

@Sobex @cwebber I'd have to dig into the specs to answer that, which I haven't, as the price I've seen spooked me out of it immediately.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@Sobex Usually arm64/aarch64, but there are some other modules, including a (soon to be revived) FPGA module (that one's just for some very particular developers), and there were some demos of a RISC-V module. But it's generally ARM64.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@Sobex There's one other big downside: power management really isn't very good on most of the modules *yet*. I think some of the older modules have suspend, but hibernate is kinda working on the RK3588, no suspend yet. I do think this is a big barrier to adoption for many people.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@jorgecandeias @Sobex I'm pretty sure they're cheaper than a Framework. The Pocket Reform certainly is.

[listentolist@norden.social]

@cwebber @Sobex Have you tried running Guix System on one of the MNT laptops?

[cwebber@social.coop]

@listentolist @Sobex I haven't yet; running Guix on top of Debian when using it. There have been people working on it:
https://community.mnt.re/t/guix-and-reform/173/44

It could use more help though!

[cwebber@social.coop]

A lot of people are bringing up price as a downside. This is true insofar as there are certainly cheaper offerings on the market which are even more powerful in terms of specs, and with less fiddling required.

So that doesn't sound like a big sell! This is for people who want to have something repairable, and want to help *get* the state of hardware to a better safe, to help invest in hardware for a future we can still control.

[cwebber@social.coop]

Overall, the MNT Pocket Reform is just over 1k EUR. Which is what many laptops go for. Certainly if you go looking for cheaper options, you will find them though.

But it is an expense. And an even bigger expense from the MNT offerings: time, hack energy, and patience. This is the biggest thing I'd warn about: you have to be willing to fiddle with the thing and take part in the community. MNT's offerings are getting better and better, but we're still at early adopter period.

[cwebber@social.coop]

But with all that said, if there's *anywhere* that there's a market for a hack-it-yourself laptop that's highly configurable, it's the fediverse!

And the original point of this thread wasn't "this is the best value for the price point". That's not an argument I'm making.

The point I argued is that we *need* hackable hardware in order to keep participatory computing alive, and MNT's offerings are the best bet we have.

And I fully, fully believe that much is true.

[kerplunk@mastodon.scot]

@cwebber

I'm hoping the MNT Reform Next is going to make MNT's stuff more accessible to a wider variety of people

Sadly out of my price range, will stick with second hand Think pads and for me must have, Linux.

Looking at the site and specs.
I really like the idea of easily user replaced battery cells. That should be required by law,

[cameron_bosch@floss.social]

@cwebber Sadly, without support for today's software (and yes, I'm talking about x86-64 CPUs), MNT will remain extremely niche. Don't get me wrong, I do like what they are doing. But what's the point right now if most people can't run many applications commonly used on it?