You should be able to re-map the alt keys to be more spacebars (and thus have four of them!)
That’s exactly what I did. I installed Key Remapper and converted the ALTs into spaces, the CTRL key to the left of the spaces to a left ALT, the COMPOSE key into another A because I will never hit that on purpose and will likely only hit it when I meant to type an A. I’m good with the CTRL in place of CAPS_LOCK so this pretty much has me typing happily. It’s a little weird to have four space keys instead of one space bar but the end result is functional.
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I have one of those as well. I would love to be able to use it as a daily, BUT I can’t because the display cable is loose, and half the time I can’t the display to come on. Replacing the display has no manual or assistance on how to do it. So I have kind of just kept the Librem 13 on the shelf.
My daily is a Framework Laptop, but I sometimes take the Reform with me instead of the Framework.
Now that I finished making the Penkesu, I take that daily, and I’ll switch between the Framework and the Reform.
I really could daily with the Reform though.
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It’s also relatively easy to reflash the keyboard firmware, in case you wanted to make the change more permanent. The files are in the repo.
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I had a bit of finger trouble over the first couple of days; I wrecked my first image with an apt-upgrade that rendered the machine unable to boot, I then struggled to find a replacement image (honestly this forum has been a godsend for such things) but since then things have been pretty solid. The manual is great, but when it advises locating an image from the official site, you actually have to do a fair bit of digging unless you know about the CI page.
Battery life is satisfactory, the keyboard is excellent and the machine has enough power for most use cases. Basically with SSH client (base image, please?) and openconnect I can and do use it for work.
Video playback in browsers is a bit of a tricky subject with Linux, because HW accel just hasn’t been available for most (apart from a VAAPI-patched Chromium build) so I did not have high hopes. Chromium will happily play 720p and even 1080/30 once it settles down. This is alright for me, I didn’t have high hopes as this has been a weakness in Linux on portable devices for years.
I have not had a single crash of an application. It’s been absolutely solid.
I would love to have that design talent put towards a quick-release bottom panel, but that would just be the icing on the cake, haha.
BTW mpv + yt-dlp (available via apt) works very well for playback of HD videos from YouTube and most other big-tech video places.
I have this in my ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf:
--ytdl-raw-options=format="best[height<=1080]"
Then it’s just mpv [video url] and away you go.
mpv automatically hooks yt-dlp and you can enjoy smooth accelerated playback.
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Update:
Now that I’ve been living with the Reform for a bit, I can honestly say that it’s becoming my daily driver. I had a few struggles related to getting myself up and running with an SD-less eMMC/NVME configuration but I got through them. I remapped/reflashed the keyboard to my liking. Gnome broke after some probably ill-advised apt upgrades but I decided to take the plunge on sway instead and I honestly think I’m sold on it.
It’s been many years since I rocked Linux as my primary OS (I was seduced by Apple years back) so I’ve been having fun playing around with it and getting it setup to suit my preferences. Seriously loving it. This is gonna work.
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Sway is excellent, and a seriously fantastic way to not stagger the GPU anymore than necessary. It is snappy and just works, thanks to the careful tuning by MNT.
I’m very happy with Sway in general. I would recommend it for every user of Linux.
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The best thing about Sway is how well-featured the configuration is. It’s ready-to-go on laptops because you have straightforward keybinding control for things like backlight and speakers.
TWMs are a shift in thinking but quite addictive once you achieve it.
What are the main problems with the keyboard layout? Alternative stagger, function key placement, split space bar? Would a “trad” keyboard help that addresses these 3 things? (We would need to create some custom keycaps for that though, as there is no spacebar or 1.75U cap we could buy, AFAIK).
Having gotten new batteries after nkon had them on stock, I’ve been using the reform again.
I noticed the following related to the keyboard after not using it much for months:
- Keys take a little too much force / have too much travel compared to what I’m used to. I sometimes miss letters while typing. (I mostly use inexpensive Logitech full size keyboards or Thinkpads.)
- Function key placement is an issue. I keep on hitting Ctrl + Enter, etc. when I mean to use Super + Enter (Super is below Y on other keyboards I use) and Hyper + key for combinations involving Ctrl. I don’t use Alt much.
- The stagger wasn’t an issue for me, my fingers find the correct keys.
- Split space is mostly fine, although I sometimes hit the adjacent outer key instead, probably because of hand placement related to the next point.
- The keyboard seems a little too cramped for comfort. I was fine with a C2D-era 12" FSC Amilo Pro and the X230. I find the X200 keyboard a bit too small as well.
- The keyboard is a bit noisy, but acceptably so.
- I don’t like the Page Up/Down placement.
I could probably remap Super, Ctrl and Hyper to resolve the biggest frustration. I’d need to check whether I can swap keycaps without risk of damage. A traditional keyboard doesn’t seem required given the manufacturing challenges it would cause.
Just thought I would post an update here. Like many the keyboard was a little difficult for me to get used to, but it really only took about a day or two of trying to use it, for it to click. I think I have just tried enough keyboards trying to optimize in that department that I am used to adopting to layouts, etc.
My favorite however, is orthogonal linear staggered. What the ZSA Moonlander uses, for example.
Still the orthogonal keyboard on the Pocket Reform has me really excited. It’s going to be awesome.
That said, I have been able to find 2000 mAh batteries from Eremit, that have added battery life on my Reform. I can get through a 9 hour work day with about 2 hours of work on it, and have around 35-20% remaining. This is more than sufficient to me.
I especially appreciate the TRRS jack that the Reform uses which makes it possible to plug in a headset. This works through Dino IM when making audio calls. The port selection on the Reform is seriously impressive.
One other thing I wanted to hit on is Sway. I know that a windowed tiling manager might be a jarring experience for people used to Gnome or a graphical UI in general. However, beside the performance improvements one has from using it, the efficiency it offers is truly compelling.
On my own configuration I have many of the Windows key combos that I am used to setup. I can open thunar for files with mnt + e, for example. I can remove and add the status bar at the top (if that is where you have it configured to be) with mnt + x. So that on my screen there is nothing but windows. I use the full display for my workflow. However, if I am curious how hot the CPU is running, a simple mnt + x and I see it again. Very handy, but also saves CPU cycles when I don’t need the information it presents.
But the one thing I really just want to harp on again is how well the Reform is built. I got the new metal side covers, and the Reform really is akin to a tank in terms of its durability.
Lastly Lukas’ continued commitment to the product and future products based on it is just fantastic. The Reform as a platform is going to places, and it is evident to see.
I’m really looking forward to the Pocket Reform, because thanks to the Reform I already know I’ll be daily-ing the heck out of that thing when it is released!!!
Edit: one other thing I forgot to mention was that I am impressed with how fast the batteries can be recharged on the Reform. Usually they are fully charged and ready to go in about an hour. With the Reform running.
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After trial running the Reform on Sway for a couple months and getting everything on it I think I would need, I felt confident enough to take it on vacation with me as my sole system recently. Worked out great, didn’t miss anything and the only hiccup (albeit temporarily) I had was I couldn’t open raw images from my camera. A quick install of darktable solved that and in a snap I was back in the running happiiy clacking away on my lovely backlit mechanical keyboard.
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I did a trip to Portugal for 10 days with the Reform being my only laptop. I ran kde plasma (so that my partner would also feel at home) and during my holidays managed to do everything that I usually would do: do Debian packaging, watch videos (on youtube as well as local videos), answer emails, browse the web, worked with git and fixed several bugs in my software packages. The only thing that I was really missing was reliable suspend but I hear that we are working on that part. I took a screwdriver with me just in case I had to fix things but ended up not using it at all. I also use the Eremit LiFePO4 batteries and enjoyed incredibly long runtimes (4 hours plus – no idea how long exactly because my board is still learning the capacity of the Eremit batteries and showed 0% even though I was still using the laptop just fine). Essentially, I was never in a position where I needed to stop my work and rush to plug my reform in.
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YMMV of course, but for me suspend is pretty reliable. I have been able to resume the last 14 times I have suspended the system. On the off chance that suspend doesn’t work I simply restart the system and set everything back up. It takes maybe 2-3 minutes and I’m not really that bothered. It will be cool when suspend works perfect everytime, but for now I’m content.
I asked Lukas about this already and he mentioned that KDE is slower than Sway, but I’m guessing it is not as slow as Gnome. Do you in general prefer KDE, or do you just like it more than Sway and Gnome?
My mileage varies greatly. Even with a fresh reform-rescue-system image on SD-Card and no modifications, I don’t even manage a single successful resume – I dream of being able to do 14 successful resumes. And yes, I press Circle+Space to resume. This improved with the recent fix but now my atheros wifi is missing after resume.
As written in my original post, KDE was chosen so that my partner would also feel at home. On my old laptop I’m using awesomewm so sway is a fine alternative for me under wayland (awesomewm is based on xcb, so a lot of porting would be needed to make it work on wayland). An additional reason for me to use KDE during my holidays was, that we recently merged the KDE plasma packages in the full system image and I wanted to see if there were any packages missing (and there were: plasma-nm systemsettings and powerdevil).
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For me, it’s been similar to using an RPI for daily desktop tasks. Quite possible, even enjoyable, but you need to alter your mindset a little, specifically in trying to pare back what you need. You have to decide what level of support and performance you’re willing to put up with, i.e. Does it work? If so, does it work well enough for my use case?
The comments about Signal/Electron are funny, because as bad as they are, it’s not just them, this kind of bloat is everywhere which is why your x86 computer whirrs like a vacuum cleaner and heats up your lap when you’re just chatting and looking at the web. Ever noticed how much CPU YouTube eats up just on a thumbnail page? It’s a bit daft. On the other hand, projects like Telegram have shown that it can be done.
I can get by with a Terminal and a browser for most of my day job, and so the reform is fine. I can use Remmina to get into Windows hosts and our enterpise VPN works with openconnect so it’s gravy all around.
For things like the current workplace plague of videoconferencing I just use my work-issued Mac. I’m not sure I’d want that stuff on my reform even if it worked.
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Things I really like:
- The build quality feels really good, it’s a pleasure to use.
- The screen is really pretty decent
- Sway + Waybar has been a revelation. I love using it.
- Cool’n’quiet, this is a rarity on personal computers and I appreciate it. The reform just doesn’t get hot during normal use.
Things I would like to see:
- Broad support for H/W accelerated video within the web browser. This is a challenge across the whole of Linux so I know it’ll be a way off.
- Easier and documented process for using other distros. I’m quite comfortable with X86 Linux but the process with Uboot etc is a bit intimidating on this thing
- Some CPU choice (different SOCs) so we can play around with different configurations, although honestly I think it works pretty well and I never catch myself thinking “I wish it was as fast as my RPI4” because frankly there’s little or no difference, especially as NVME gives the reform a massive I/O advantage.
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For my own curiosity, what email client and editor are you using?
For myself, Evolution seems pretty speedy, but I have not used it a lot yet.
I’m still exploring editors, VSCode seems slightly too slow for me. Sublime text is alright. I used vim on the pinebook pro, mostly because it had such a bad touchpad, but I don’t have that problem with the reform trackball.
alot + notmuch + offlineimap + msmtp.
I’m using my terminal for everything (editor is vim) except for firefox, gimp and libreoffice. As such, the Reform fits perfectly for me. I can also totally relate with the post of @Sully_B above – it becomes harder and harder to run low power hardware because the world seems to have accepted to just waste cpu cycles everywhere instead of writing efficient code. Very sad. 
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Are you using your Reform with a NVME or running it off the SD card?
I use Code on mine and it is plenty fast for me.
However, on the Penkesu I built reunning Pi OS off a micro SD it is pretty slow indeed.
I first found out about Evolution because of the Reform. It works great and has a built in calendar.
I’m using Evolution on my Framework laptop running Ubuntu as a result.
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Thank you all for the great and detailled reports on how you use MNT Reforms. Just a heads up that you can submit these as Field Reports here and get $25 credit with Crowd Supply: Field Reports | Crowd Supply
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