Dear Mr. Hartmann,
is there any possibility I could ask for the following features to be considered for the next iteration of the MNT Reform laptop:
- Integrated WWAN modem with electrical cut-off switch
- integrated camera and microphone with electrical cut-off switch
- Wifi+BT card with electrical cut-off switch
- All electrical cut-off switches be positioned north of the keyboard display (not on the sides, as the placement would be less than ideal), All switches should ideally have notches so that one can figure their function in the dark.
- liquid weep-holes + internal drain pipe like the old IBM laptops so that the laptop survives a liquid spill on the keyboard. This would require rubber feet on the bottom of the laptop sufficiently high to avoid water ingress from the bottom up
- ideally integrated modular ports so that the user can best tailor the laptop to their needs (LAN should also be included as a flush option, not stand-out like framework laptops do)
- two hot swappable battery drawers to replace spent 18650 batteries with the laptop running
- secure boot mechanism to avoid BIOS malware
- a light on top of the screen as the ThinkLight in the old IBM laptops
- a robust design to survive rough treatment of an industrial environment
- a chassis intrusion switch with the option to stop boot in case of compromise (until the user resets the BIOS).
- could the lid be designed so that it can be opened with one hand?
- could a privacy screen panels be included, if not as standard, at least as an option?
Thank you.
NB: thank you so much for your continued dedication to create an open hardware open software computing platform. This is what I am promoting professionally, but this is, sadly, an uphill battle.
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Figured Iād give my $0.02 on some of this list. Thereās cool ideas in here (and please donāt take my feedback on some of these as discrediting the whole list, thatās not what Iām aiming for at all!), but I wonder if some of them actually make sense for Reform given its current state, and what it stands for / aspires to be going forward (at least based on the public comms Iāve seen), especially wrt compatibility promises. And some are just not physically possible to my knowledge without major changes to a lot of core Reform hardware/designs/promises.
I seem to recall killswitches being discussed a few times along the years and mostly not making the cut on practicality/pragmatic grounds? It would certainly make the wiring schematic and routing significantly zanier! Keep in mind that some SOMs bundle WiFi/BT onto the SOM, and others donāt (and WiFi/BT is provided over PCIe), so this is a nontrivial and SOM-dependent feature being requested.
Having worked with a bunch of Choc-based mechanical keyboards over the years I can pretty confidently guess a liquid drain pipe isnāt likely, and will also do little to prevent liquid damage on the keyboard. Membrane keyboards can get away with stuff like that to some degree because the electrical contacts are under the membrane/dome which helps seal liquid out of the part where electricity is flowing. On 100% of Choc keyboards Iāve ever seen, the joint between the (thru-hole) keyswitch and the PCB is just exposed solder. Liquid will happily bridge any number of those solder joints it makes contact with, and while a drain pipe would help prevent buildup of said liquids, it isnāt going to stop the electrical damage that liquid intrusion causes on keyboards like this. I suspect a migration to a membrane keyboard to make things more water resistant would be met with significant pushback - the mechanical keyboard is a pretty defining quality of MNT laptops.
Re: 7, this would be pretty cool indeed, but itās worth noting that at least on Reform Classic, the batteries are (if my memory serves correctly) all wired in series. Each cell is 3.2V nominal (as are most/all LiFePO4 cells), 8 cells brings us to 25.6V. If you poke around at the battery menus on Reform Classic, youāll frequently see references to voltages in that general area (24-28V), which implies to me all 8 cells are wired in series and that it is unlikely the system can run with just 4 cells (in the case of a removed āhalfā, or drawer in your recommendation). Cool idea, but weād be looking at a fully redesigned electrical schematic for the entire motherboard to get to that world - and I suspect, not a backwards-compatible redesign at all. But hey - Iām not an electrical engineer, maybe someone has studied the PCBs better than I have and knows a way to get there.
Chassis intrusion switch seems pretty antithetical to the idea of a laptop designed to be tinkered with. It makes total sense if your threat model includes physical-access-required malware installationā¦ but folks who need to dearly worry about that as a threat model very likely have to use hyper-specialized hardware and software anyway. For most of us just living our day to day lives out in the world, this just isnāt a concern, and the idea of having to clear the BIOS because I unscrewed the bottom panel of the laptop would frankly infuriate me. (I assume this would be something I could disable, but still 
)
Hi klardotsh,
thank you for your elaborate reply. I guess in the end I can live with the aforementioned limitations. After all it is better to have open computing autonomy than be dependant on big tech. However one feature I wonāt let go of and that is the integrated WWAN modem - I just donāt like being dependant on a mobile phone for internet connectivity outdoors. This would mean I have the stress of two batteries being charged and thatās one too much 
One more thing - any possibility to make the spacebar whole please (or at least offer that as an option)? Itās weird being split up in three pieces ā¦
Regarding 12: open lid with one hand, Framework was designed like this, and the lid is floppy and flaps around when the laptop is moved while open because the āone hand openā hinges arenāt stiff enough to hold it still. In my opinion this (along with the general apple-esque āthin and lightā mentality) actually detracts from the quality of the product and contributes to the perception of fragility that laptop suffers from.
edit: minor nitpick, but the current āfull fatā Reform IS the Reform 2. The first gen never got publicly released afaik.
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thank you for the feedback. I agree, sturdy hinges are the better option than flimsy hinges. When writing about one hand operation I was thinking at my old IBM X220 which was one handed and still (reasonably) sturdy.