King Penguin Linux Notebook

The machine itself is super super ultra-thin, wafer thin, very cool looking. It's crazy light, I was amazed how slick it looked when it arrived.
Huge amount of open-source hardware/chipsets/etc.. The first time I went through the dmesg I was smiling. 2 USB 3.0 ports, and they actually work as promised, very very fast transfer speeds to my USB 3.0 external SSD. Incredible speed, boot time is the fastest I've ever seen. Starts at $720, mine was $1,800

Who is ThinkPenquin?

About: Our products are freedom-compatible. Meaning they will work with just about any free software operating system. This is made possible by selling products with free software compatible chipsets.

Free software is a set of principles that ensure end-users retain full control over their computer. Free software can be used, studied, and modified without restriction.

The chipsets we use encourage community development and user participation. Users can not be locked into a vendor or product, be forced into an expensive upgrade, or have other digital restrictions placed on them.

King Penguin GNU / Linux Notebook

This is the highest-performance notebook machine sold by ThinkPenguin, and I've had mine for about 2 months. Like all the ThinkPenguin machines, this sucker is dirt cheap compared to mainstream dealers!! Starts at $720. Product Page. Below are the options I chose during the order, my total was only around $1,800! That's less than half what my Alienware M18xR2 cost.

Memory / RAM

For my customization the first thing of course was to max out the availabe RAM to 16GB DDR3.

Hard Drive

Knowing how important disk speed is, I opted for the 120GB SSD, which is blazing fast.

CPU / Processor

This machine does a lot of encryption and media tasks, like SSH, so I opted for the Quad-Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz / 2.9 GHz turbo

Distribution / OS

Arch Linux! My favorite distro going back a decade.. and unlike most single-distro proponents (ubuntoo especially), I've tried hundreds. Mostly I'm using arch for personal use and Red Hat for professional use.

Things I like

The machine itself is super super tiny, wafer thin. It's incredibly light, really I was amazed when it arrived how thin and ultra-clean it was.

Huge amount of open-source hardware/chipsets/etc.. The first time I went through the dmesg I was smiling.

2 USB 3.0 ports, and they actually work as promised, very very fast.

Wifi and Ethernet ports excellent. Battery life decent. Incredible speed.

ThinkPenguin - Supports Freedom

I first heard about thinkpenguin from my FSF newsletter for members. If the FSF supports a company, you should all go try and support them as much as you can by purchasing from them.

I was actually there to purchase the first open-source (hardware and firmware/software) usb wireless-n adapter, and saw they actually specialize in selling machines. I'm hooked!

Specifications

Get it at: ThinkPenguin.com

Category	Specification
Processor	Up to 3rd Gen Intel i7
Screen	15.6" FHD (1920x1080) Matte 16:9
Wireless	802.11N Atheros Wifi (freedom compatible chipset)
Webcam	2.0M pixels HD video camera
Memory	Up to 16GB
Battery	6 cell Lithium-Ion (about 7 hours, /w optimization)
Ports	2 x USB 2.0 ports 2 x USB 3.0 ports 1 x external VGA port 1 x HDMI output port 1 x Headphone jack 1 x Microphone jack 1 x RJ-45 LAN port (10/100/1000)  1 x DC-in jack
Touchpad & Keyboard	multi-gesture and scrolling function full size isolated keyboard with numeric pad
Chipset	Mobile Intel® HM77 Express Chipset
Optical Drive	Built-in Super-Multi Drive (supports DVD-RAM/R/RW/+/-/CD-R/RW)
Graphics	Intel HD
Built-in Audio & Mic	Yes
Approx. Dimensions	374(W) x 252(D) x 14 ~ 25.4(H)mm (Height excluded battery area) 14.73" x 9.92" x .55" ~ 1" inches
Weight	2.2kg, 4.8lbs (/w battery)
Default configuration	Includes the latest release of Ubuntu
Compatible with	Most other GNU/Linux flavours (hardware supports free & mainline kernels/project drivers)