Minifree Reviews 69

I bought a T400 and an X200s from Minifree, both practically new with no problems. I've been using the X200s for years now and it still runs fine keeping low CPU temps. Leah was very patient when I was having difficulty transfering the money to buy laptops. She did some free work helping me over IRC when I wanted to flash the latest Libreboot firmware and incorporating some of my suggestions into the Libreboot project. She also gave me advice for finding new Thinkpad batteries. She is very committed to user freedom and I would buy from Minifree again.

I bought a T440p with upgraded screen from Minifree in the spring of 2022 and asked for delivery to Scandinavia. The computer arrived on time and it was very well packed. It could have survived a drop onto concrete!

About the laptop itself: it is a refurbished Thinkpad and is physically in extremely good condition compared to the model's age. With the upgraded screen and touchpad it is a pleasure to use. The keyboard is of reliable Thinkpad quality. The keys don't bulge out much and don't need to be pressed too hard; you can easily type with long / acrylic nails.

About software & hardware freedom: having been a customer of Minifree since 2013, I did pay attention to their new policy concerning hardware firmware in the form of binary blobs. Compared to earlier laptops by the same company, the T440p I ordered this time uses osboot instead of libreboot, and it also shipped with wifi and bluetooth modules which do not work with Linux-libre. They do work with mainline Linux and variants of BSD including OpenBSD. Since I use Linux-libre, I unscrewed the bottom panel and replaced the wifi module by one compatible with Linux-libre. This was quick & easy to do.

Overall I would recommend Minifree for anybody interested in having a secure, freedom respecting and convenient laptop.

Buying a laptop from minifree.org?
I have purchased one of them about 3 years ago. It was a Thinkpad T500. I waited about 2 months for it, but it was because Leah was extremely busy at that time, and was handling too many orders. I didn't mind waiting, because she was a really nice person from the start and gave me a lot of free advice.

I still have got that laptop, but unfortunately I spilled a coffee on it last year and broke the keyboard. I have reported this to Leah, and she decided to fix it for me.
My circumstances have changed since then, I became a homeless person and having no laptop was actually ruining me mentally... I started to drink lots of apple cider (7.5%) and was on the way to become an alcoholic... Leah decided to fix the laptop for me and send me a temporary replacement one (x200). I explained my situation (having money issues, being homeless) and she decided to send me that x200 for free!!! What a bliss! I asked for a Coreboot Seabios to use openBSD on it and it's amazing!
So it feels like I paid £230 for two laptops at minifree.org, which is really an amazing deal.
I stopped drinking alcohol, because I have got things to do now, and games to play :-). I am no longer bored and lost!

Leah is also a super helpful and honest person. I would definitely recommend buying from minifree.org to anyone who wants to buy a good and secure laptop. Don't waste your money and time for another windows machine! Get it at minifree! Get a lifetime support as well! :)

I am never going to regret my purchase and I am glad and pleased that I bought my machine at minifree.org:-).
Thank you!

Minifree is the best around:
Honest, professional, trustable.

Absolute best purchase and support anyone would ask for especially for a top secured laptop.
I have been an avid Linux user for over a decade and almost entirely Qubes OS in recent years but found it too resources demanding. I experimented with Coreboot, etc some years ago and found Minifree, who is very patient with advice and everything I need & should know BEFORE AND AFTER the purchase. With advice and pointers I moved on to BSD on VMs, on a laptop with no bio boot, it's a rad!!
If only buying everything online have this kind of professional customer service.......
I cannot ask for more. Period.

I purchased a Libre T440p from Minifree recently. I'd asked on Social Media for a good laptop at a good price and they were recommended to me. I liked the spec. and bought one for a team member immediately. Communication was good and it arrived pretty quickly. Very happy with the laptop. Will purchase again. Thanks!

Very helpful and knowledgeable, would happily purchase laptop from again

Purchased a T440p from Minifree and it's a good laptop, and came in refurbished edition which was close to new and everything is working properly.

Payment through bank account went well. Leah helped me with some problems before and after arrival and has a good customer service.

Personally I'd say Minifree can use one or two more employees, to speed up the customer response time.

All in all, this seller is definitely recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Recently ordered an x230 from Leah and I was honestly very impressed. The thing came ready to go right out the box. Will definitely be coming back for another in the near future. Love what she's doing and wish her the best of luck!

UPDATE to below review: in the below review I mentioned that I needed to ask Leah for technical support. Today I finished following their instructions and it completely fixed the problem I had been having. Yay! Everything works now. So two thumbs up.

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I'm only one person and I have a data set of size 1, so I'm hardly authoritative here, but my impression is that when you buy a laptop from Minifree, what you're buying is:
1. A solid laptop, that has been
2. Refurbished to "better than new" condition,
3. Tech support (if you need it -- I did -- others may not) from a real human, and
4. Custom firmware pre-installed on the laptop, that is open source so you can trust it more than you might be able to trust the OEM firmware.

I personally feel that Leah under-charges, considering how much individual attention and TLC they give each laptop they sell. I also signed up on their Patreon to kind of even things out a little bit. So there's that.

I did a lot of research before deciding to go this route. Many companies sell refurbished T440-era Thinkpads. (I decided I trusted Minifree the most). There don't seem to be many good alternatives to the Thinkpads of this era. The only other kind of laptop I found that I even wanted to bother thinking about was the Pinebook. Which I'm sure is an excellent product as well. I definitely don't have anything bad to say about Pinebooks based on my research. But I eventually decided on the Thinkpad.

The company uses a third party payment system which is inconvenient for payments. Also would suggest replying to emails more promptly, possibly by hiring more staff. Response time is slow due to being a one person team. Other than that the product shipped fine, although international shipping is a bit slow which is to be expected. The company even shipped extra RAM when asked due to a perceived RAM problem that was actually something entirely else. Overall one of the very few companies with almost completely FOSS laptops.

I have been living in countries where they are openly intrusive and if you are not running something really independent using all the tools you are open to exploitation from any side. I purchased 2 laptops from Minifree, the T200 and X230. The T200 was an earlier one from about 4 years ago works fine today. Delivery was a little long at that time but the best is worth waiting for. I ordered a SSD shortly after and it came immediately. (In parallel I got a backup T200 from another source but the service was nothing special and that one crashed and burnt. Sometimes you need to trash a computer to keep things safe :) A flash kit I ordered later from the other source took months to arrive.) Minifree tech backup and YouTube support videos are great. I sanitized an old T400 based on Minifree support and I was amazed it turned out 100% perfect. I decided to get the X230 from Minifree to widen the boot/OS options as the attack surfaces are constantly moving. These computers are old for reason because you can modify them. If you want something new then these solutions are not for you and you don't understand the risks.

I can really recommend Minifree. I purchased a Lenovo X230 from them. I am located in Australia and they shipped my laptop in great condition via express from London. If you are looking for a privacy laptop, these are the guys to buy it from.

Everything went very smoothly and arrived exactly as stated. Great product and service! Thanks for your efforts and attention to detail!

Received both laptops ordered in perfect condition. Battery was almost dead on one of them, but to be expected given their age, easily replaced.

Shipping was insanely quick (received within a week internationally) and the seller (Leah) was super communicative!

I've read the other reviews here and they seem to be the opposite experience of what I had. I am not sure why but things have likely improved since then so I definitely recommend buying from here.

Granted, the need for a libreboot machine is not for everyone but if you are looking for one, then this is the best place.

I bought a Thinkpad x230t and am loving it. Communication about payment and shipping was clear and the unit arrived promptly, packaged safely. The documentation on the website and communication from Leah is great. I will continue to by my machines from Minifree. Leah does an amazing job. Highly recommend.

I've made numerous purchases from minifree and have at times sent in laptops to be worked on, never been disappointed and they're always my first choice for laptops.

There's no better supplier for coreboot preinstallation and ThinkPad mods.

Doesn't provide a useful service anymore, except selling overpriced old computers. Even when they aren't defrauding customers (see other reviews). The time of the X200 and T60 are long over. There is zero advancement visible. Minifree is deader than dead.

I just received my LibreBoot machine from Leah, and I'm very happy with it. She was accommodating of my US keyboard request, and readily answered each and every question. The machine is exactly as described and meets my needs perfectly!

Laptop was a little late but I don't care just too good for the money.