Doing some digging I think it might work?
Hard to tell from digging through forums but it appears to be supported in kernels after 5.14
Assuming that NFA725A and QCNFA765 are more or less the same part as seems to be suggested by the HWinfo results I’m finding it’s supported.
I guess now I have to decide whether to take the chance on it not working and being left with a laptop that needs a USB wifi dongle to work. No returning a machine to ebay…
2 months later, still looking.
Right now I’m weighing up these two machines:
You may notice that they are in fact the exact same machine, but one costs a little bit more than the other. These are both Schenker machines and seem to be identical hardware, one comes from a linux support promising company, one doesn’t. However the Linuxy company has all their drivers etc. up on their support page.
So do I want to pay a little more (to be fair some of this money goes to RAM and a power supply, but I’d rather bring my own) and not have to faff about with drivers, or do I cheap out and waste my time instead?
Decisions decisions…
These seem to be the best machines on the market without getting into ropey gaming laptops
When you say light streaming / gaming- what are hardest kinda games you’re throwing at it?
It may end up being something smidgen older tech, but knowing what you’re getting out if it
I don’t really play all that much, the most intensive thing I do is the odd bit of emulation and some heavier indie games, Beyond Citadel and Signalis being the two recent ones that come to mind.
I don’t really play Triple AAA games so that’s not a concern. I did briefly consider buying a ROG G14 but Asus + Expensive gucci gaming laptop would seem to equal bad idea, though the reviews are good…
If it’s between the two, I’d probably give it to tuxedo, who has been a good company supporting Linux. Though if it were me, I’d save up and get the FW16
I did look at the 16 but after emailing a few people I found online that have ones I don’t think it’s for me. Impressive product, but its battery life is awful and it’s way to expensive for what you get.
It’s down to the Tongfang GX4 (the XMG/Tuxedo laptop) or yet another ebay thinkpad.
Quickly reading through this, is there a reason you haven’t considered an arm laptop? From what you do workload wise, I would think it would be pretty easy to stay off x86?
Gaming, maturity and limited choice (especially for linux)
The only really mature arm laptops would seem to be Macbooks, which I’m open to but not convinced by, I don’t know anyone with one either, so I can’t ask to give one a spin for a bit to see what they’re like. The hardware is definitely very tempting though.
Sorry, I didn’t realize you still wanted some games besides emulation, as I wasn’t familiar with the other games you mentioned. With how the Asahi linux project is progressing, I don’t think it would be worth it going to a Mac if you really want to stay on Linux.
I think you are going to have to compromise somewhere, either in terms of price or battery life, to get exactly what you want. I still feel like the framework laptops are your best bet, but that’s just me. Please keep us updated if you can! Good luck with the search!
I’m entirely ambivalent about Mac, I’ve just never tried it. I know mac is anti consumer etc. but none of these companies are really truly pro consumer, I’d buy used if I were to get a mac.
In terms of compromise I’m starting to think I should forget about gaming entirely and buy a laptop purely for productivity, I can get a deck or something at a later date if I really want to game.