Three viable vendors today for a UK-based hardened-laptop reseller program:
Star Labs (UK), NovaCustom (NL), System76 (US). Recommended 3-SKU lineup:
- Tier 1 / Lite: Star Labs StarBook Horizon (Alder Lake-N, ME disabled,
~£1,140) — UK domestic, no Heads option
- Tier 2 / Pro: NovaCustom V54 (Meteor Lake, Dasharo + factory Heads,
~£1,210) — flagship; B2B reseller programme + custom engraving
- Tier 3 / Workstation: NovaCustom V56 (Meteor Lake + optional dGPU,
~£1,250+) — Qubes-certified, dual NVMe, 96 GB RAM ceiling
Key findings:
- Framework not yet shipping factory Coreboot for non-Chromebook (AMD
openSIL port still in development per Phoronix Mar 2026); revisit Q4 2026
- Purism Librem 14 ruled out — old CPU, supply unreliable
- AMD PSP cannot be cleanly disabled in shipping firmware in 2026 — Intel
with neutered ME wins for the hardened tier; revisit when Star Labs
StarFighter AMD or Framework AMD Coreboot ports stabilise (~2027)
- NovaCustom is the strongest single partner: Clevo B2B reseller
programme, factory-flashed Heads option, free UPS to UK, custom-logo
engraving available
Operational cautions documented: Meteor Lake S0ix suspend caveat with ME
disabled (default to hibernate-only), EC firmware not 100% open anywhere
(don't market as "fully libre"), Dasharo firmware ships quarterly so
re-verify before each procurement batch.
Snapshot dated 2026-04-25; all source URLs cited for human verification.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two product lines, named to make scope obvious to buyers:
- 🔒 SilverMetal OS — we ship the operating system or ROM
(Linux, Pixel, Samsung-unlocked, Motorola-unlocked)
- 🛡️ SilverMetal Enhanced — we harden the OS the device already runs
(Windows, macOS, iOS, generic Android)
Repo alignment:
- SilverVPN already exists as a SilverLABS product (server + MAUI client +
Linux client + tunnel service). stack/vpn/ is now an integration pointer
rather than a re-scaffold; per-platform READMEs reference it.
- SilverApple is deprecated; SilverMetal Enhanced — iOS supersedes it.
Migration step added as roadmap milestone 3I.1.
- SilverDROID name clash explicitly noted as unrelated (it's the SilverSHELL
AppStore Android client, not an Android ROM).
- SilverChat may overlap with SilverVPN.Client.Chat; alignment decision
added as roadmap milestone 1.1.1.
Roadmap restructured: phases now track the OS/Enhanced split.
Platform matrix re-sectioned and decision flowchart updated.
README rewritten around the two-product-line framing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
