$ 93.86
Coreboot X230: Best libre laptop for professionals I’m very happy with this powerful and corebooted ThinkPad X230 by Vikings! I received the laptop swiftly delivered by DHL an in a professionally packed box. The laptop itself looks as good as new, in a near to perfect casing and a presumably brand new keyboard. The form factor of the X230 is perfect for my needs, and I really love the smaller, more portable size. I’ve been working mostly with 14″ laptops so far, more specifically the ThinkPad T4XX series. This great little machine beats them all: * Highly portable, while still offering a great and full sized keyboard. The keyboard by the way being really excellent, far better than the newer ThinkPad chiclet keyboards and I actually prefer it over the older X200/220 keyboards as well. The 12.5″ screen size makes it a perfect companion not only for traveling, but also for general handling and daily usage around home or in the office. * Ordered mine with 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD. It’s really powerful, and for my daily usage – and I work as an IT professional and system administrator – it’s really speedy and can handle anything I throw at it. And I’m not talking “normal office work” only, this X230 delivers far more than that. I can easily run my 6-8 virtual machines on high load, seems like no big deal for the X230… * You’d want to get the docking station as well. It’s a highly useful piece of gear, and I much prefer this type of docking station to any USB-C type box. It’s easy – and feels good – to dock the X230, it makes a really nice little “clack” sound when you attach the X230 and it sits well and tight. The main benefit here is that I can use the X230 easily with my 27″ 2K monitor at home, or my dual screen setup at the office. So when I work stationary, I usually pop the X230 into the docking station and have a powerful beast of a workstation. Going out? No issue, I simply dock the X230 off the station and put it into my bag and I’m ready to leave. This combination of a small, light and portable laptop, yet a fully capable workstation when docked… Well it simply beats all my previous setups! * IPS panel – really nice to work with, bright and full colors. Now, I can’t really compare it to the normal TFT as I haven’t used that, but it’s a huge difference to e.g the TFT panel in my older X200. This IPS is really good! * Battery life. I got a brand new 6 cell (6600mAh/73Wh) battery from Thomas – thanks again! – and I can use the X230 for a good 8-9 hours, depending on work load. For me, that’s usually good enough for an entire work day at the office and usually don’t even bother to bring the charger. * Coreboot and (almost completely) free of the Intel Management Engine. You won’t find too many machines out there that are usable for modern day computing tasks incl. virtualization, while having the Intel ME disabled. This is one of them! There’s a reason the X230 is ranking on top of Qubes OS hardware compatibility list, and that the X230 is one of the few laptops that also is one of the few Qubes OS certified laptops. The X230 is one of the most powerful and libre friendly laptops out there. This Vikings X230 with Coreboot is absolutely the best laptop I’ve ever used so far! I’d recommend the X230 to users out there that want a privacy/freedom respecting machine, both for personal and for professional usage. It’s so good I’m actually considering buying a second one, for backup and contingency. Really hope that this machine will be around for a long time! Big thanks out to Thomas and his team for his professional support during the buying process, and for doing a _really_ good job selecting and refurbishing this truly A grade hardware!! 5 stars and both thumbs up!
