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 # Scratch
 
-Linux may not have evolved (yet!) into the mainstream desktop operating system its advocates had hoped, but fans of free software have never had it so good. Dell, Lenovo, HP, Purism, and System76 all sell excellent Linux-based hardware. Time travel back to 2012 to shout the good news and you'll have trouble convincing even the Linux faithful that the future is even brighter than they're dreaming.
+## Nomad Grill Review
 
-And yet here we are. For the past six weeks I've been working on a System76 Pangolin laptop without ever giving a thought to the fact that I am not using Windows. Everything just works. The operating system is integrated with the hardware. The hardware is outstanding (more in that below), and I am hard pressed to find anything to complain about.
+The Nomad grill is to portable grills what the Yeti is to coolers, which is to say, it is a better grill than most, but it comes at a price. That both come from Texas is coincidence. Probably.
 
-### AMD Inside
+The Nomad is a new take on what a portable grill should be, or even can be. It's compact, cooks phenomenally well, and unlike many "portable" grills, it can genuinely go anywhere.
 
-System76 has been making Linux laptops for longer than most of the big names that it now competes against, and in most respects is way ahead of everyone else. The Pangolin line launched two years ago as the company's first AMD laptop. The latest iteration features a Ryzen 7 6800U processor, with 32 gigabytes of RAM, and up to 16 terabytes of SSD storage.
+### Wandering Grill
+I've [tested a lot of portable grills](https://www.wired.com/story/best-portable-grills/) over the years and the Nomad is hands down the best built portable grill I've ever used.
 
-As you might expect, 16 terabytes does not come cheap. The base model Pangolin is a reasonable $1,300, which gets you a single 250 gigabyte SSD (with a slot for a second). Fully decked out at 16 terabytes you'd be looking at $4,213. Most of us don't need that much storage, but I especially like having two drive slots, which gives you a lot of flexibility to upgrade down the road. 
+From the perforated, anodized-aluminum shell to the cast-aluminum grill boxes inside, everything about the Nomad feels solid and well-made. The heavy duty handles and latches are strong, even the grilling surface is held solidly in place with high-temperature resistant magnets.
 
-The 15-inch form factor is my least favorite part of this laptop—it's just too big for me—but if you love a huge screen and a 10-key number pad, the Pangolin delivers. That said, the big, wide screen is nice, and major bonus point for the matte display. The 1920×1080 FHD screen has a 144 Hz refresh rate, which is nice for gaming.
+The design of the Nomad is different than most grills. It's essentially a suitcase, which means you can carry it with one hand. The solid construction doesn't make it light—it's 28 pounds with one grill grate, 31 pounds if you opt to buy a second—but it's not awkward and unwieldy like our current top pick portable charcoal grill, Weber's Jumbo Joe.
 
-The size makes the Pangolin on the heavy side at just shy of 4 pounds. That's not overly heavy for a 15-inch laptop, but it definitely feels large coming from a 2.5 pound 13-inch laptop. The build quality is great. It's not quite Thinkpad-level great, but as close as you're going to get without buying a Thinkpad.
+When collapsed in suitcase carrying position the Nomad looks like a cross between something Jason Bourne would use as a carry on, and some kind of live animal cage. I told one person who asked about it that my kids had a pet wolverine and this was it's cage. For a second I think they believed me.
 
-Pangolin remains impressively thin at under an inch despite the plethora of ports that System76 has packed in. There's Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (with DisplayPort support, but not Thunderbolt), three USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack, and a full size SD card reader. I can't tell you how much I miss full size SD card readers. Also note that unlike the previous model, this Pangolin can charge over USB-C. System76 provides a barrel-style charge cord, but I primarily it using my own USB-C charger (this [Satechi](https://www.amazon.com/Satechi-108W-USB-C-3-Port-Charger/dp/B09888WNM4)).
+Once you get where you're going with your Nomad you can set it up on any flat surface. Thanks to the engineering behind the Nomad, it never gets hot enough to harm wood, metal, stone, or sand. I would not put it on a plastic table, but it should work fine everywhere from your truck tailgate to your local park's picnic table. While flat on the ground is the most awkward way to cook on the Nomad, it also works.
 
-It's also worth noting that System76 has included a hardware camera kill switch for privacy. I was curious how this works and after a bit of tinkering, discovered that it does indeed completely drop the camera from the system bus. It's a nice little feature for those that want it—saves you some electrical tape anyway.
+The Nomad is also pleasingly low tech. There are no Bluetooth temp sensors, apps, or anything else. This is grilling of the old school, relying on your skills and experience. The Nomad does use a Tru-Tel  
 
-I really like the Pangolin's keyboard. The keys have a pleasant bounciness to them with a nice return. The keys seem every so slightly larger than what I am used to on my Lenovo, which took a minute to adjust to, but once I was comfortable I much prefer the System76 keyboard. That said, I am not a fan of number pads and the way they make the rest of the keyboard (and trackpad) off-center. It didn't bother me enough to be a deal-breaker, but I'd love to see an option to not have a number pad, I have no problem with dead space to the side of my keyboard. I should also mention that I am a key pounder and everyone in my family commented on how quiet the Pangolin keyboard was compared to, apparently every other laptop I type on.
+For typical high-temp grilling the Nomad folds in half giving you two sides to grill on. The catch is that the grill for the second side is sold separately and will set you back another $130. If you get the extra grill grate you'll have total of 425 square inches of cooking surface. Nomad claims this is enough for 30 burgers. I did not test the second grill grate, but cooking singled sided there was enough room for 12 burgers of the size I like them.
 
-The AMD Ryzen 7 6800U chip delivers impressive performance. Sysbench scores were well above any other Linux laptops I've tested recently (I got 4,786 events per second on a single core). It doesn't have a dedicated GPU, but I found the integrated graphics perform very well compared to previous generation AMD graphics. If you're looking for a full-time gaming rig, this probably isn't going to cut it, but for the casual gamer the Pangolin will be able to hold its own. The bottom line is this is a plenty powerful machine for most people. The only real limitation for some will be the 32 gigabytes of RAM, which is not upgradeable.
+The other things to note is that this is a cambered grill, which means if you get both grills you'll need to flip on over before closing it up. Nomad also points out that you can cook with it flipped over, making it something like a veggie basket.
 
-Battery life in Linux is often... not great. I am happy to report that the Pangolin managed 8.5 hours of battery life in our standard battery drain test, which involves playing a 1080p video at 75 percent brightness with networking turned off. That's actually quite good for a screen this size and the better news is that in real world use I almost always got through a full workday without needing a charger.
+There are two features about the Nomad worth mentioning when it comes to cooking. The first is the twin air vents. In single sided mode you end up with one air vent at the bottom, one at the top. If you have both sides open they're both at the bottom. They're much smaller vents than what you'll find on typical grills, but they work well because of a second feature: the longitudinal raised slats. These ribs running the length of the grill pan hold Nomad's special charcoal cylinders off the bottom of the grill, making the air flow around the better and allowing you to maintain higher temperatures even with the lid closed.
 
+The bad news is that if you use regular charcoal briquets the airflow isn't as good and you won't be able to get temps as high. I cooked my way through the sample box of Nomad Charcoal in about four cooks and then switched to the regular Kingsford briquets you can buy almost anywhere and was never able to get the Nomad back up above 400 with the lid closed.
 
+That said, I can't think of many situations in which you'd want to get temps that high, aside from perhaps baking a pizza. If that's your use case, you can always buy more charcoal from Nomad. It's $36 for a 10 pound box.
 
-Downsides: 32 gb ram, no 4k, no Thunderbolt
+While I do not like bespoke charcoal (I can't even believe I had to typed the phrase "bespoke charcoal") because of the price, Nomad's charcoal is better than what you get at the big box stores. It's denser, burns hotter and longer, and gives off less smoke. My kids even discovered it's good enough to double as art charcoal. If you've got the money to burn (literally), Nomad charcoal is worth it.
 
-### Pop_OS! Linux
+Since the Nomad can be closed up, suitcase-style, it can be used to smoke as well as grill. Smoking with the Nomad is a little trickier than with Weber's Jumbo Joe, at least at first. It took some careful tweaking of the vents to get the air flow to the point that it was maintaining the temperature I wanted, but once I had it dialed in, the temp held well, better than the Weber in fact.
 
-As with all of System76’s Linux-powered laptops, the all-new Pangolin comes with System76’s custom built Pop!_OS Linux distribution installed. As I said when I reviewed HP's Dev One laptop, which also ran Pop!_OS, Pop!_OS provides the best user experience I've seen in a Linux desktop. It manages to be easy enough for Linux newcomers to find their way around, while still offers a good amount of power-user features. Want tiling windows? Just toggle a switch in a toolbar menu. There are loads of (customizable) keyboard shortcuts for developers who eschew the mouse, and there's plenty of trackpad gestures to control workspaces, window focus, and more. 
+The only thing I found annoying about smoking in the Nomad was needing to lift off the entire grill grate to feed in some fresh fuel. A hinged grill grate would be a nice option (especially since the magnets would hold it securely in place the rest of the time).
 
-As a long time Linux user perhaps I am biased, but to my mind the user experience of Pop!_OS is better than what you'll get on macOS or Windows. 
+It's also worth noting that as a smoker you have slightly less room than the Jumbo Joe. A single side of the Nomad is 212 square inches, while the Jumbo Joe manages 240 square inches. In practice this isn't a huge difference. I managed to smoke nine chicken breasts, and another time I fit two racks of ribs. In fact, even without the second grill grate I never felt cramped cooking for five (two adults, three ravenous children) on the Nomad.
 
-If you do have an issue, this is one of the easiest systems to get some help. At the bottom of the Settings menu, there's a Support panel. From there you can get to online documentation, community support chat (which often includes system76 engineers), and, if all else fails, you can submit a support ticket, complete with log files for system76's support staff to help you out.
+### Nomad tk
+When I pulled the Nomad out of the box and looked inside my first thought was what a nightmare to clean. This turned out to be only partly true. Cleaning the Nomad on site is a bit of a pain. Flipping over a 28 pound suitcase to dump out the ash is awkward. The good news is that if you're just out for the day, you can close up the Nomad and head home without doing a thing. You don't even really need to wait for it to cool since the outside never gets more than warm.
 
-If you're a seasoned Linux user with your own prefered distro you can of course wipe Pop!_OS and install your favorite. I tested Arch Linux and it installed and worked without any special effort on my end.
+Once you're at home a hose will make quick work of cleaning up the Nomad, a pressure washer will work even better, but I've been getting by just fine with a hose.
 
+The grill grate takes a bit more effort to clean. I do not recommend using any thing but bristle-free scrapers, I've been cleaning mine periodically with a green scrubber and occasionally throwing some wood in at the end of a cook to burn off the grate. Follow that up with a fresh seasoning and your grate should be clean and ready to go for your next cook.
 
+The Nomad is the best portable grill I've used. That said, the Weber Jumbo Joe remains a very good grill at the faction of the price of the Nomad. Still, if you've got the budget for the Nomad you will not find a better grill and it will not disappoint.
 
 
 
+## Best Linux Laptops
 
+Linux will work on just about any PC. There plenty of Linux distros that still happily support 32-bit processors. Remember the Pentium 4? It's still supported by Debian Linux and others. That said, Linux runs better on some laptops than others, and some PC makers offer official support for Linux on their machines, meaning you have somewhere to turn if things should go awry.
 
+To help you figure out the best options for your perfect Linux rig I've been installing Linux (or trying) on every laptop I've tested for the past three years. Almost all of them worked great, but some were easier to get running than others. More than a few of my favorites come with Linux right out of the box. Here's our guide the best laptops for Linux.
 
+Be sure to also see our guides to the [Best Laptops](https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-laptops/), [Best Cheap Laptops](https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-cheap-laptops/), [Best Macbooks](https://www.wired.com/story/which-macbook-should-you-buy/), and the general buying advice in [How Choose the Right Laptop](https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-buy-the-right-laptop-for-you/).
 
+### Best For the Minimalist
+Dell XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition
 
+### Best For the Maximalist
+System76 
 
+### Best on a Budget
+Lenovo X-series
 
+### Best Repairable, Future-Proof
+Framework Linux
 
+### Best tk
+Lenovo X1
+
+### Best for Sysadmins
+Oryx Pro 
 
 
-Every time I review a System76 laptop some neckbeard shows up in the comments a bit like Comic Store guy from the Simpsons, "ahem, excuse me, this are actually just rebranded Clevo laptops," so let's get that out of the way first. Not really. System76 works with upstream manufacturers like Clevo to spec out systems with hardware components that work with Linux and then write drivers where needed to make sure that the finished product is a seamless experience. Naturally Clevo also offers up a similar-looking chassis for sale, but there's none of the custom firmware or drivers that make it works so well. 
 
 
 
@@ -1439,6 +1461,64 @@ contain microfibers: http://guppyfriend.com/en/
 
 # Reviews 
 
+## System76 Pangolin Review
+
+Linux may not have evolved (yet!) into the mainstream desktop operating system its advocates had hoped, but fans of free software have never had it so good. Dell, Lenovo, HP, Purism, and System76 all sell excellent Linux-based hardware. Time travel back to 2012 to shout the good news and you'll have trouble convincing even the Linux faithful that the future is even brighter than they're dreaming.
+
+And yet here we are. For the past six weeks I've been working on a System76 Pangolin laptop without ever giving a thought to the fact that I am not using Windows. Everything just works. The operating system is integrated with the hardware. The hardware is outstanding (more in that below), and I am hard pressed to find anything to complain about.
+
+### AMD Inside
+
+System76 has been making Linux laptops for longer than most of the big names that it now competes against, and in most respects is way ahead of everyone else. The Pangolin line launched two years ago as the company's first AMD laptop. The latest iteration features a Ryzen 7 6800U processor, with 32 gigabytes of RAM, and up to 16 terabytes of SSD storage.
+
+As you might expect, 16 terabytes does not come cheap. The base model Pangolin is a reasonable $1,300, which gets you a single 250 gigabyte SSD (with a slot for a second). Fully decked out at 16 terabytes you'd be looking at $4,213. Most of us don't need that much storage, but I especially like having two drive slots, which gives you a lot of flexibility to upgrade down the road. 
+
+The 15-inch form factor is my least favorite part of this laptop—it's just too big for me—but if you love a huge screen and a 10-key number pad, the Pangolin delivers. That said, the big, wide screen is nice, and major bonus point for the matte display. The 1920×1080 FHD screen has a 144 Hz refresh rate, which is nice for gaming.
+
+The size makes the Pangolin on the heavy side at just shy of 4 pounds. That's not overly heavy for a 15-inch laptop, but it definitely feels large coming from a 2.5 pound 13-inch laptop. The build quality is great. It's not quite Thinkpad-level great, but as close as you're going to get without buying a Thinkpad.
+
+Pangolin remains impressively thin at under an inch despite the plethora of ports that System76 has packed in. There's Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (with DisplayPort support, but not Thunderbolt), three USB-A ports, a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack, and a full size SD card reader. I can't tell you how much I miss full size SD card readers. Also note that unlike the previous model, this Pangolin can charge over USB-C. System76 provides a barrel-style charge cord, but I primarily it using my own USB-C charger (this [Satechi](https://www.amazon.com/Satechi-108W-USB-C-3-Port-Charger/dp/B09888WNM4)).
+
+It's also worth noting that System76 has included a hardware camera kill switch for privacy. I was curious how this works and after a bit of tinkering, discovered that it does indeed completely drop the camera from the system bus. It's a nice little feature for those that want it—saves you some electrical tape anyway.
+
+I really like the Pangolin's keyboard. The keys have a pleasant bounciness to them with a nice return. The keys seem every so slightly larger than what I am used to on my Lenovo, which took a minute to adjust to, but once I was comfortable I much prefer the System76 keyboard. That said, I am not a fan of number pads and the way they make the rest of the keyboard (and trackpad) off-center. It didn't bother me enough to be a deal-breaker, but I'd love to see an option to not have a number pad, I have no problem with dead space to the side of my keyboard. I should also mention that I am a key pounder and everyone in my family commented on how quiet the Pangolin keyboard was compared to, apparently every other laptop I type on.
+
+The AMD Ryzen 7 6800U chip delivers impressive performance. Sysbench scores were well above any other Linux laptops I've tested recently (I got 4,786 events per second on a single core). It doesn't have a dedicated GPU, but I found the integrated graphics perform very well compared to previous generation AMD graphics. If you're looking for a full-time gaming rig, this probably isn't going to cut it, but for the casual gamer the Pangolin will be able to hold its own. The bottom line is this is a plenty powerful machine for most people. The only real limitation for some will be the 32 gigabytes of RAM, which is not upgradeable.
+
+Battery life in Linux is often... not great. I am happy to report that the Pangolin managed 8.5 hours of battery life in our standard battery drain test, which involves playing a 1080p video at 75 percent brightness with networking turned off. That's actually quite good for a screen this size and the better news is that in real world use I almost always got through a full workday without needing a charger.
+
+
+
+Downsides: 32 gb ram, no 4k, no Thunderbolt
+
+### Pop_OS! Linux
+
+As with all of System76’s Linux-powered laptops, the all-new Pangolin comes with System76’s custom built Pop!_OS Linux distribution installed. As I said when I reviewed HP's Dev One laptop, which also ran Pop!_OS, Pop!_OS provides the best user experience I've seen in a Linux desktop. It manages to be easy enough for Linux newcomers to find their way around, while still offers a good amount of power-user features. Want tiling windows? Just toggle a switch in a toolbar menu. There are loads of (customizable) keyboard shortcuts for developers who eschew the mouse, and there's plenty of trackpad gestures to control workspaces, window focus, and more. 
+
+As a long time Linux user perhaps I am biased, but to my mind the user experience of Pop!_OS is better than what you'll get on macOS or Windows. 
+
+If you do have an issue, this is one of the easiest systems to get some help. At the bottom of the Settings menu, there's a Support panel. From there you can get to online documentation, community support chat (which often includes system76 engineers), and, if all else fails, you can submit a support ticket, complete with log files for system76's support staff to help you out.
+
+If you're a seasoned Linux user with your own prefered distro you can of course wipe Pop!_OS and install your favorite. I tested Arch Linux and it installed and worked without any special effort on my end.
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+Every time I review a System76 laptop some neckbeard shows up in the comments a bit like Comic Store guy from the Simpsons, "ahem, excuse me, this are actually just rebranded Clevo laptops," so let's get that out of the way first. Not really. System76 works with upstream manufacturers like Clevo to spec out systems with hardware components that work with Linux and then write drivers where needed to make sure that the finished product is a seamless experience. Naturally Clevo also offers up a similar-looking chassis for sale, but there's none of the custom firmware or drivers that make it works so well. 
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 ## Fujifilm Instax Mini 12
 
 I have an affinity for the tangible that probably betrays my age more than anything, but nowhere does this hit me as hard as in photography. I [love photo prints](). I love photo books. I love instant images like Fujifilm's Instax prints.