Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/23/flexible-hardware-xxi-style.html
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At first I thought this was going to be a TMNT laptop
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Um, Quake 3 Arena is most assuredly not “modern” anymore.
Remember the Thinkpads with the fold-out keyboards? There’s nothing like that anymore these days, is there? I expect the patents might be close to expiry.
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I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum, but come on. What this thing would get you is (a) pitying looks and (b) the tedious chance to replace its proprietary components yourself rather than having Dell or Apple do it under warranty.
If they’d worked out how to make even a Z80 chip from scratch in your garage, that would be a blow for tinkering. This seems more like empty posturing" he wrote, bitchily.
I think that it has very specific target audience. While I’d design the case differently, I like the idea of hackable laptop with mechanical keys. I, and probably many people in hardware hacking community don’t care much about “pitying looks”. I use my current laptop mostly for TeX, ssh and programming/debugging of embedded systems. Specifications of the proposed machine are more than enough for that. Replacing components is not a problem - nearly every part can be sourced within a day or in worst case a week and BGA soldering is not that difficult.
While I wouldn’t be interested in the whole unmodified computer, a later version of it’s mainboard (with i.mx 8) could make a fun project. Maybe some very retro laptop with black-stained oak wood case and keycaps 
Probably could be done, but some of the required chemicals are nasty
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Tempting…
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