NovaCustom – Framework Laptop alternative focusing on privacy

This seems to have nothing similar to what Framework laptop offers.

The main (only?) selling point for NovaCustom is open source coreboot firmware and disabling of Intel ME.

I'd like to see Framework laptop with these features, but those two features do not make a Framework alternative.

I took a poke around their website and it looks like you can purchase a motherboard. It seems this exists somewhere between the mainstream and Framework: a regular laptop with right to repair.

NVIDIA, though? We are still a good few months, or years, away from attempting to seriously use NVIDIA and Linux in the same sentence without looking like a complete idiot.

> The main (only?) selling point for NovaCustom is open source coreboot firmware and disabling of Intel ME.

Also it's officially certified to run Qubes OS.

I'm not sure what you're talking about here. I am a customer of System76 several times over. I just purchased a laptop for my 15-year-old that runs Pop_OS and has an NVIDIA card, and he has been doing both AI on it as well as high-end gaming, all is zero assistance from me in getting things set up. I also worked on self-driving cars and maintained fleets of hundreds of machines with H100s, all running Ubuntu.

I don't feel like a complete idiot, but now you're making me wonder. What's your experience been?

My Linux system has a nasty little bug in the card audio ouput system that results in dropped audio when there's too much bus traffic. That's a direct result of Nvidia issues deep in the stack. And of course, Nvidia's automotive division is infuriating to work with.

Good Linux support though.

Nvidia drivers have included serious Wayland support since the 550 series. My NixOS Nvidia system has run equally as smooth as my Intel iGPU for close to a year now.

I have a GTX 650 Ti that keeps being erratic with Wayland to where it becomes unusable out of the box. Didn't take any time to try and resolve because it is being used as a server. Disabled the GUI service and only boot into terminal.

The security features are options you can select like:

- Disabled IME

- Coreboot EDK or Heads

- Removed Camera and Microphone

- Buskill kit

- Privacyscreen

- Tamper-evident Screws and Packaging

The spare parts front and center without hoops or hacks does look pretty much like Framework actually.

Like I said, you need 550-series drivers or later to have good support. The 600-series has been depreciated for a while now so its not surprising that it's not supported.