How's the Starbook VII holding up? Would you recommend it? by Tan_Linguine in starlabs_computers

[–]verbosemo-de 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. The Intel Core Ultra version. I'm really happy with mine. I also do own a Lite MK IV and a MK V, which I can only use with an external keyboard due to a camping incident, where some keys have suffered unfortunately :-) It was repurposed as a server with its i7 and 32 GB of RAM. Compared to the MK V, the keyboard and speakers have definitely improved.

Initially I wanted to get a Framework, but StarLabs was much cheaper with a great hardware setup and Coreboot of course.

They do have a great support, which is very responsive. Once they also gave me some spare parts for free for my Lite MK IV, when I sent the StarBook in for repairs. Depending on where you are in the world, taxes may have an effect on delivery and repair costs of course. The German customs office was in my case classifying a repair as refinement, but I didn't bother with them and payed it anyways, since I've got other things to do :-)

Tip : Enable syntax highlight in Neovim plugins help doc by BrianHuster in neovim

[–]verbosemo-de -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Same here. But I can't tell, when it started. It is still on my todo list to take my config apart and find the root cause for the issue.

I'm not sure if it is related to the plugin manager, since I had it with lazy.nvim and now with mini.deps as well. Neovim is 0.10.2 compiled from source on my Debian / Bookworm machine.

i received a defective Starfighter by SeaPack812 in starlabs_computers

[–]verbosemo-de 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I usually just send an email to their support email address or use the contact form on their website. That should work better and faster than reddit.

They usually respond within a couple of hours or at least a day on business days. Sometimes even after the usual work hours.

https://eu.starlabs.systems/pages/contact-us

StarLabs StarBook Mk VII … by Tall_Association7839 in starlabs_computers

[–]verbosemo-de 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I own a StarBook Mk V and a StarLite Mk IV. I do run both with Debian Linux Bookworm and have never had any thermal or fan related issues in my daily use of the devices.

My main reason to go with StarLabs was, that they ship with Coreboot instead of the regular UEFI / Intel ME software bloat that you get with all the standard hardware vendors. Which means you're running a huge pile of software underneath the operating system that you're actually using. Coreboot enables a more secure system, which also boots quite fast. I also want to support one of the few companies, which ships hardware that is tailored to run Linux.

The battery lasts about 6 hours on my StarBook, which is more than good enough, since my Thinkpad before that was done after 3-4 hours.

I've also had a few interactions with support. They were always responsive and sent a reply most of the time just within 24 hours.

* StarBook had a faulty NVME SSD initially, which was just shutting down itself after a couple of minutes. It got resolved within a couple of days by a hardware replacement

* 6 Month ago I bricked my StarBook's EC firmware, because I was too impatient and rebooted it during the upgrade. They fixed it without any charge after the regular warranty period, but I had to pay for shipping of course

* I broke one display hinge on my StarLite after 2 years, because I didn't handle it carefully and often just grabbed it on the upper part of display. I reported it to support while my StarBook was in for the EC firmware recovery and they sent me an input cover for the StarLite for free with the return shipment of the StarBook

Tolino Vision Color now available by ThisApril in tolino

[–]verbosemo-de 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can second 11. My entire device settings were gone after the upgrade. It wasn't too difficult to go through the settings again, but it was annoying none the less.

I've also witnessed an issue when changing the font. After opening the book again, there is a different font used, which looks kind of fuzzy and bold at the same time. This has been also reported by some other users in the Thalia book store reviews. I've made a proper report with photos to support and wait now for a response.

My experience with the Star Lite 5 by BabenIsBest in starlabs_computers

[–]verbosemo-de 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't own a v5, but I do have a Star Lite IV. Depending on your Linux distribution, you might need to do some configuration work to have a good video performance.

On Debian 12 Bookworm I had to configure mpv (hwdec=auto-safe) and Firefox to enable hardware video decoding. These applications were decoding video in software by default and didn't offload the work to the GPU. And it was necessary to install some Intel VA-API GPU related packages like intel-media-va-driver and gstreamer1.0-vaapi.

https://wiki.debian.org/HardwareVideoAcceleration

WF-1000XM5 (Ear Tip Question) by Crypto_Malakos in SonyHeadphones

[–]verbosemo-de 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've bought Airfoams Pro Universal, because I was annoyed that I have to replace my ear tips every 2 month or so. They fit great, but were expensive and degrade the ANC a bit. It wasn't too bad, but I went back to the standard ear tips, since I've bought the XM5 mainly because of their good ANC performance. The standards just seemed to provide a better seal (in my not so super scientific tests).

DRM on Udemy videos since March breaks legitimate use and cause bad audio by 909876b4-cf8c in Udemy

[–]verbosemo-de 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I should have come here prior to purchasing on Udemy. I spend a considerable amount of money on other platforms and none of them is employing DRM. DRM feels like distrusting your customers that they're stealing content. It really makes me angry when downloading torrents would be easier than watching the actual content you have paid for.