Premium-feeling laptops that aren't Apple machines.
Yes yes, I get the economical barriers. I'm past caring. It is so incredibly frustrating to look outside the Apple ecosystem and feel like the entire PC industry is content to sell the bare minimum of quality (outside of Gamer hardware, which looks obscene - but I get that it's subjective).
It's a horrible business idea on the numbers and nobody would do this, but if some lunatic out there wants to blow the money, build and sell a laptop at whatever price point you want that:
- Supports CoreBoot
- Isn't a rebranded Clevo shell and has close enough fit and finish to a recent MacBook. Read: No. Plastic. Case.
- If there is ever the phrase "panel lottery" uttered about your machine, you've messed up.
- No logos, or throw them on the underside like Purism.
- The screen has to be relatively close to the MacBook in brightness + viewing angles. Give me an option for a glossy screen.
- Trackpad must be glass. You won't get close to the MBP trackpad on the first or second pass, but try.
- Go for some crazier vertical integration ala the M1. I don't care if it blocks upgrading certain parts, since I consider the industry to move fast enough that I won't _want_ the machine anymore in 4-5 years.
- There is no need for touch of any kind, nor the ability to flip the screen or anything. Just make a damn laptop.
- Edit: high quality boutique feeling support. I don't need an Apple Store equivalent, but at least invest in this.
I get why Apple can do all of the above. I would pay literally twice what I pay Apple for a competing product. Currently, every laptop that I try feels like stepping back a few years.
The upcoming Purism Librem 14, in terms of images, feels like it could _feel_ close - but I'm not impressed with their other products so I'll believe it when I see it. I remain shocked that System76 hasn't bothered with this.
End my rant about this industry, I guess.
I found the Surface Book had a wonderful premium feel; I went into the shop with a list of specs in mind, and Microsoft was the last manufacturer I'd imagine going with, but it's a powerful machine and also just a beautiful object. Metal case, relatively subtle/classy logo, absolutely beautiful screen, nothing else was compromised for the sake of touch, clean baseline first-party OS. If you really want a premium feel from anyone-but-Apple and are willing to pay more-than-Apple prices for it, I'd very much recommend it.
Does it run Linux properly?
googling
Answer seems to be maybe:
https://www.most-useful.com/ubuntu-20-04-linux-on-surface-pr...
https://old.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/top/?sort=top&t=year
TBH I hadn't really considered Surface's before due to them being Microsoft devices.
Overall, I do agree that the hardware feels quite nice, and besides those issues I listed, the Linux experience is quite good. I was very happy to not be forced to use Windows.