[HN Gopher] MNT Reform 2 DIY Kit Review
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MNT Reform 2 DIY Kit Review
Author : Corrado
Score : 75 points
Date : 2021-05-04 12:57 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (mauromorales.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (mauromorales.com)
| danbolt wrote:
| I have a beta MNT Reform 2, and the laptop falls in the "just
| works" category.
|
| It gives a bit of bulk and the setup wouldn't work for everyone,
| but I downright _love_ the user-replaceable standard batteries.
| NovemberWhiskey wrote:
| The idea is nice, but _wow_ it 's expensive for what you do get.
|
| The CPU being a quad-core A53 architecture is basically Raspberry
| Pi - but the 3B rather than the 4; only 4GB RAM; only Full HD
| resolution. You pay $999 and that doesn't include any storage or
| even the wifi card.
|
| The comparison with an entry-level MacBook Air is sort of
| horrifying. Same price but just a completely different league in
| almost every respect.
| RodgerTheGreat wrote:
| The Reform isn't cheap, but it does come with _other_ things
| that Macbook Air doesn 't have (and never will):
|
| - promise of drop-in replacement SoC boards in the future.
|
| - open specifications.
|
| - batteries are trivially user-replaceable.
|
| - mechanical keys.
|
| - the option for a trackball as a pointing device.
|
| - a high-quality manual.
|
| Are those worth the tradeoffs? Maybe; clearly they are for some
| people.
| mntmn wrote:
| Keep in mind this is boutique hardware with very low volume,
| the device has a mechanical keyboard, and the case is milled
| and anodized aluminum. We are 3 people in the shop plus a
| network of freelancers. But unlike Apple, we can make open
| hardware and happily give you full control over the device, and
| you can communicate directly with us. This is a totally
| different scenario.
|
| The CPU/RAM module is not the price defining aspect here, and
| we're ready for faster chips when they come out. The idea is
| you can upgrade for a fraction of the price of buying a new
| device.
| Corrado wrote:
| Are you saying that it's possible to upgrade the CPU? If so,
| that would be game changing and would put the price point in
| a whole new light. I can imagine "upgrading" my computer to a
| faster processor like we do with RAM. That means you wouldn't
| have to dispose the old machine and re-install all the
| software. That's gotta be worth something to some people!
| thescriptkiddie wrote:
| > I can imagine "upgrading" my computer to a faster
| processor like we do with RAM
|
| Am I going insane, or is our collective memory of user-
| serviceable computer hardware already fading?
| theodric wrote:
| There are a lot of people alive now who were not caring-
| about-socketed-CPUs-in-laptops-years-old when that was a
| thing (and even then, I had at least three 386SX laptops
| with soldered-on CPUs)
| mntmn wrote:
| Yes, the CPU/GPU (SoC) and RAM are together on a
| SODIMM-200-shaped module.
| NovemberWhiskey wrote:
| I do get that this isn't trying to compete with the closed-
| hardware market; no-one is cross-shopping the MNT Reform 2
| with a MacBook Air (which does also have a milled, anodized
| aluminum case).
|
| It's mostly just a note of despair about how large the gap
| is; you _really_ have to care about the open hardware aspect
| to make the choice.
| beardicus wrote:
| +1 on the aesthetic choices with this laptop (and its
| documentation!). i'm not a backer but have been following along
| and it's just lovely and thoughtful throughout.
|
| i guess one major reason i'd be hesitant to buy is that i'm not
| sure i'd love a trackball, and i've been spoiled by apple's
| trackpads. maybe this could force me into practicing more
| keyboard-only navigation though...
| mntmn wrote:
| Hi, we offer MNT Reform with a custom glass trackpad as well!
| You can even swap the trackpad and trackball modules, and we
| offer them separately if you want to try another one later:
|
| https://shop.mntmn.com/t/hardware/reform
| jbotz wrote:
| Any chance of a Thinkpad-style trackpoint at some point in
| the future?
| znpy wrote:
| the most interesting thing about this laptop are the eight slots
| for 18650 cells. standard-size batteries, for once!
| tym0 wrote:
| I would totally get that PDA with ortholinear keyboard:
|
| https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/106143465897150489
| kop316 wrote:
| That looks to effectively be a Dragonbox Pyra:
|
| https://www.dragonbox.de/en/pyra
|
| Or a pinephone when it has the keyboard attachments:
|
| https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13684
| tym0 wrote:
| I've contemplated getting a Pinephone just for the keyboard
| attachment before, the pyra on the other hand looks
| completely untypable.
|
| If what's on the back of the MNT is a Rasberry Pi Compute
| Module it would be more powerful than the Pinephone, no?
| kop316 wrote:
| When I had an Open Pandora (I lost it somewhere along the
| years...), I used thumb typing for the most part. It worked
| but was slightly clunky.
| mntmn wrote:
| One thing that doesn't come up here yet: our partners RBZ have
| developed an open hardware alternative SOM for MNT Reform based
| on NXP LS1028A with 2 Cortex-A72 cores and 8 or 16GB RAM. This is
| currently in the first bringup phase, but sources are already
| released:
|
| https://source.mnt.re/reform/mnt-reform-layerscape-ls1028a-s...
|
| I'm also personally working on a Kintex-7 (FPGA) SOM. This will
| allow us and others to implement RISC-V or other architectures,
| incl. retrocomputers and carry them around in a laptop form
| factor.
| jron wrote:
| Will you offer the MNT Reform with the new SOM (Cortex-A72)
| when it becomes available? I wanted to pull the trigger on the
| first batch but needed something a bit faster than a Raspberry
| Pi.
| mntmn wrote:
| Sure, but that will still take a while.
| fentonc wrote:
| What type of Kintex-7 part were you thinking? This is a little
| more svelte than my 16-core Z80 "ZedRipper":
| http://www.chrisfenton.com/the-zedripper-part-1/
| mntmn wrote:
| Ha, I've seen that! Really cool project!
|
| The default part will be XC7K160T-FFG676, AFAIK it has some
| pin compatible family members as well.
| kop316 wrote:
| I just want to say, that is a fantastic project!
| intricatedetail wrote:
| That's not DIY but CIY - cobble it yourself. You need to at least
| have to use a soldering iron for something to be called DIY.
| uncletaco wrote:
| How the fuck do you have the energy to gatekeep DIY?
| pengaru wrote:
| TIL the soldering iron is the DIY qualifying tool of self-
| cobbling...
| messo wrote:
| I have been following the development[0] of these laptops for a
| while and I am really impressed and intrigued! The freedom to
| hack and modify your laptop seems amazing and the design
| decisions should really appeal to the ThinkPad crowd (like
| myself, writing this on a X201).
|
| 0: https://mastodon.social/web/accounts/35156
| Corrado wrote:
| If you've every wanted a laptop that you could customize and
| assemble yourself this laptop might be for you. I think it looks
| interesting for the mechanical keyboard alone.
| unbalancedevh wrote:
| Reminds me of the old Heathkit catalog.
| queschun-mntr wrote:
| I had a question about the arm chips used in this project.
|
| The shipping version seems to use Cortex-a53 while the
| development version seems to use Cortex-a72.
|
| Does anyone know if these chips have Intel Management Engine or
| AMD PSP type backdoors built into them? I'm looking for hardware
| that is free of management engines and hardware and software
| backdoors.
|
| Open hardware doesn't mean anything if the chip is sending your
| encryption keys and passwords to the NSA (or their Chinese
| equivalents) over the network.
| kop316 wrote:
| I am very interested in this, but I am wondering, what is it's
| mainline support?
|
| I had a Novena, and it was not fun to find out since verious
| things were not mainlined, I essentially had to patch my own
| kernel if I wanted to use a newer one.
| mntmn wrote:
| Hi, mainline support is good in general, but we do have a few
| patches that are still being mainlined:
|
| https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform-system-image/-/tree/main...
|
| As we use (in the default, pluggable SOM at least) the same SoC
| as Librem 5, there are synergies to have good mainline support.
| kop316 wrote:
| That's good to hear, thank you for the response!
| taylorlapeyre wrote:
| I love the MNT Reform and almost placed an order, but now I'm
| sort-of glad I decided not to. I'm not sure I can justify
| spending over $1k for a machine that struggles to run the
| Grammarly browser extension.
| mntmn wrote:
| Just to give some perspective, JS applications I'm using on a
| daily basis on MNT Reform:
|
| - GitLab
|
| - Mattermost
|
| - Telegram Web
|
| - Glowing Bear
|
| - CodiMD
|
| - Discourse
|
| - Mastodon
|
| - (Discord, not daily)
|
| - Youtube
|
| - Youtube Music
|
| I also use the KeepassCX and uBlock Origin extensions.
|
| All of these work absolutely fine.
| taylorlapeyre wrote:
| That's a relief. Thanks for the context!
| uncletaco wrote:
| Are you using discord in the browser? Does the desktop app
| work on the reform?
| mntmn wrote:
| In the browser yes. I have not tried the desktop app
| because I prefer web apps for proprietary services.
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(page generated 2021-05-04 23:02 UTC)