NAVI // LABS
navi runs on just about anything — that's the perma-computing promise. But on lab machines it doesn't just run. We get the hardware, we run the full matrix — wifi, suspend, battery, display, keys, firmware — and we tune until the machine feels like it was made for navi. Then we publish the notes, so you can see exactly what we did and why.
GET THE MACHINE
IN THE LAB NOW
Eleven-year-old Celeron, 2 GB of RAM — and navi 1.3 flies on it. If the installer works here, it'll work anywhere. This machine is why we can promise “old hardware stays useful” without crossing our fingers.
IN THE LAB NOW
Stepped down from active testing, but not retired: it still runs navi fine — it just can't do animated gifpapers. Some limits are hardware, and we say so.
IN THE LAB NOW
Classic keyboard, socketed CPU, endlessly repairable — the kind of machine navi respects. The eiri experiments live here.
IN THE LAB NOW
Legacy-BIOS business tower, navi 1.3 installed and validated. The lab isn't just laptops.
PARTNERS
A navi hardware partner means: early hardware access, a direct line between your engineers and ours, co-published tuning notes, and a lab card with your name on it. What it never means: influence over the roadmap. Sponsors and partners get our thanks and our best work — never control.
The empty tier is deliberate. It fills when the relationship is real.
FOR MANUFACTURERS
We'd rather tune navi for ten machines deeply than ship a generic image for a thousand. If you build repairable, open, well-documented hardware — the kind of machine someone keeps for a decade — we want it in the lab.
What working with us looks like: you send hardware and give us an engineer to talk to. We do the tuning, publish the notes, and make your machine the best place to run navi. Small team, short loop, no committees. You'll talk to the people who actually build the OS.
navi labs machines are bought or loaned; reviews are never for sale, and a lab card is earned by testing, not by payment.