
System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house - b01t
http://blog.system76.com/post/159767214983/entering-phase-three
======
AdmiralAsshat
The posts comparing various laptops to the Dell XPS 13 and calling them
similarly sized are missing a key point: the XPS 13's lack of bezels. It is a
13" screen, but due to the lack of bezels, it basically fits in an 11"
chassis.

I think that's an often overlooked detail and one of the pieces of "sexiness"
that makes it very difficult to want to switch away from an XPS 13: it's so
damn portable.

System76 needs to come out with something comparable to that before I can
switch. The market of people who want something rugged/durable/functional are
already taken care of by the Thinkpads. The market that is still untapped is
that of the Linux ultrabooks. Developers and other Linux enthusiasts basically
just want a MBA/MBP that runs Linux natively. Do that, and people will flock
to it.

~~~
sacul
MBP-quality trackpads and MBP-equivalent battery life. I can't understand why
battery life isn't higher on the list of "must haves" for people who want a
nice linux laptop.

~~~
themodelplumber
Do you ever have to do any laptopping for more than 2-3 hours in a place where
there is no opportunity to plug in to a power source? My experience simply
says that's really unlikely for me, and my couch and desk at work are 99.999%
of the use cases. So battery allows me to meet these vendors halfway.

~~~
kazagistar
Airplanes?

~~~
bmuppireddy
A person who travels frequently doesnt need a *nix laptop.

~~~
lvh
It appears you're contradicting an ancestor's lived experience :) Is it really
so ridiculous to suggest that sometimes, people who use Linux (let's call them
technical) travel a lot? Is the idea of a programmer who flies around the
world to present their work at conferences really so ridiculous? (There are
lots of other archetypes, like consultants, SME owners that are still very
technical themselves, et cetera.)

~~~
gh02t
I'm an engineer that travels a lot for conferences and I use Linux almost
exclusively... I'd love a svelte laptop with long battery life.

~~~
ashark
A lot of Apple's battery life success seems to be due to the software—both iOS
and MacOS. Android's only just now starting to _kind of_ catch up with iOS on
power management, and MacOS doesn't beat other laptops because they use giant
batteries or something. I'd expect it to take 7-8 figures of focused
investment in the Linux kernel and probably some significant mountain-moving
to get peripheral projects (windowing system, init maybe, various driver
vendors) coordinated and going in the the right direction to improve Linux's
power management much.

Hell, even the Apple _browser_ is more respectful of battery life than its
competitors. Power draw seems to be considered carefully at every level at
Apple, and it shows in their results.

------
SunShiranui
It's nice to see this - I'm definitely interested in seeing computers built
and designed for Linux.

I must say, however, I don't see that need for desktops. Custom desktops are
relatively easy to build, even for customers.

A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that
doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing.

~~~
s_kilk
> A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality,
> that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing.

It exists, it's the Thinkpad T-series.

I don't get all this hand-wringing over the need for hypothetical great Linux
machines when we have Thinkpads available right now.

~~~
Arnt
Which T is closest to a Macbook Air 11"?

There are many fine linux laptops in the desk-home type, 14"-17". The
selection isn't so fine if you're looking for something that'll fit in your
lap on the plane or train, and have 8G of RAM. Or at least 4.

~~~
haspok
You want an XPS 13 then.

I just used mine on a Ryanair flight a few days ago, cramped in the middle
seat for 3 hours. The XPS 13 fit perfectly on the very small folding table,
the top of the screen just sticking under the bottom of the pocket-thing that
is always full of useless flyers.

I believe it has the same footprint as a MBA 11. And of course, I'm running
Linux on it :)

~~~
mmrezaie
XPS 13 is amazing and with Linux support it is fine, but that keyboard though.
You need to test it to see if it fits for you.

------
josephpmay
I wish System 76 the best of luck, and it appears as they're now the main
developer/sponsor of RedoxOS, which really excites me, but for some reason
this blog post reads to me to have a healthy dose of naivety to it. It seems
like they want to have their cake and eat it too. They talk about "robots and
automation!" but do they actually know how to run a modern factory? Can the
demand for desktop Linux systems actually support what they want to build?
This is going to take a huge amount of scaling and hiring, and I hope this
means that they're taking in significant VC funding.

~~~
richardwhiuk
I hope they aren't taking on VC funding. Linux PCs is hardly likely to see a
hockey stick growth curve, and I don't want to see a Linux PC manufacturer be
forced to sell itself due to over-promising to a VC.

------
publicfig
This seems like an incredibly high bar/expectation to set for themselves, and
while I'd love to see them succeed, I don't have a lot of confidence. The fact
that they've decided to start out building desktops really solidifies that
doubt. I just don't see a world where there is a demographic of people that
both know about System76 and want to use a non-standard OS on a desktop
computer, but also aren't familiar with building one themselves. In an
enterprise environment, I don't see them making a huge dent either when many
companies will already have deals with major enterprise manufacturers for
desktop units, which are fairly easy to turn into GNU/Linux machines as is. It
just seems like a sinkhole trying to pour effort into a form factor that has
become incredibly unpopular over the past few years, and also (very publicly)
setting the expectation that this effort will lead to the "the Model S of
computers".

From a personal/consumer standpoint, all I want to see anymore is a competitor
to the Macbook Pro, with a comparable track pad, display, keyboard, battery
life and form factor. I'd love to move away from my MBP, but the closest
competitor I've found is the XPS 13 and, while it's a great laptop, just
doesn't hold a candle to the MBP in a few of those areas. I wish System76 luck
and would love to see them prove me wrong. This press release, so early in the
process, just seems like a lot of pressure for the company to live up to,
especially based off of their past offerings.

~~~
minusSeven
I wouldn't exactly call ubuntu a non-standard OS.

~~~
publicfig
I meant more as a non-standard OS to buy a computer loaded with.

------
francis-io
I hope you guys have lots of success, we really need more options for linux on
a laptop.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I really want a 13 inch laptop thats
thin/ultrabook format, with low specs and only a HD screen. All I do each day
is use a browser and SSH into other machines, I don't need an i5/i7 processor
and HiDPI display to do that.

My ideal laptop would be an XPS 13 sized laptop, with a 1080p screen, i3
processor, 8GB of RAM and as much battery life increases as possible.

~~~
stevehb
If you're looking for 13 inch, standard HD screen with long battery life, and
all you need is browser and SSH functionality, you might think about trying a
Chromebook. The SSH functionality comes as a Google-made extension [1]. The
CPU and RAM specs are usually lower than you mention, but in my experience the
machine runs fine for video calls, Netflix, etc.

[1]: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-
shell/pnhec...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-
shell/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo)

~~~
ansible
I switched to an Acer R11 Chromebook for something small and handy and cheap.
It runs fast enough for browsing and shell stuff. Keyboard is decent, and it
isn't flimsy.

I've also install crouton for a full Ubuntu environment, which I use
occasionally. But mostly I'm ssh'ing into my workstation and servers.

My only annoyance is the caps-lock key, which is now the Google search key.
You can press Alt-Search for caps-lock, but it is slow and a little glitchy.

------
sqeaky
So many people here are suggesting the XPS 13, but there is so much Dell BS to
put up with.

There are many configurations and many redundant options, and silly coupons
that work on some models and not others. The buying options are entirely
unclear, I think intentionally so. Just like HP and some of the other major
OEMs. Please don't read this wrong, I love options, but I dislike foolish
inconsistency. When I build a desktop I can choose any CPU, any GPU, any
Mobo... When I look at the 4 models (lines, tiers, whatever) of the XPS 13
they have redundant options, 4 different ways to get to the same configuration
with no reason I can see for a $200 difference in price. When I spend my money
I want to know what I am buying.

Beyond the normal BS is that part of buying System76 is not giving money to
microsoft. I think microsoft is evil, not an exaggeration, legitimately evil.
Not giving them money is a huge selling point for me. I think this is a
discussion for another thread and will not defend this here and now, Just take
that I (and at least a few others) won't willingly give money to microsoft. So
where is the option for an XPS with Linux, any flavor (or even Freedos or no
OS) pre-installed?

Because none of the XPS 13 systems say they support what I choose for my OS,
what is my recourse if I do blow away the pre-installed OS and something
doesn't work? They are free to change the hardware when they please and I have
ordered two dells with identical model numbers and gotten 2 different things
(even in their business class of machines). They are making it clear that I am
not their intended customer and mine is not their intended use case.

~~~
sauerbraten
> So where is the option for an XPS with Linux, any flavor (or even Freedos or
> no OS) pre-installed?

The XPS 13 is available as a developer edition with Ubuntu instead of Windows
preinstalled: [http://www.dell.com/en-
us/work/shop/productdetails/xps-13-93...](http://www.dell.com/en-
us/work/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-laptop/cax13w10h7b5128ubuntu)

~~~
fusiongyro
This reinforces the parent's point though, because now you have a fifth option
with apparently different hardware on a different update schedule with
different pricing. How much Linux incompatibility do you suffer from a regular
XPS 13 versus a Developer Edition one?

~~~
sqeaky
I would have said this if you hadn't, thank you.

To continue with the pit that is Dell BS, why is the "Developer Edition" of
this stuck at 4GB of RAM when one of the other tablet-like versions had 8gb.
My current machine has 64, my last ultrabook had 16gb, and my father's phone
has 6gb (OnePlus 3t).

Why would a phone that costs half as much have an extra 2gb of RAM and twice
as much storage? The phone has 128gb internal and we added a 128gb card.

------
Klasiaster
I think also [https://puri.sm/](https://puri.sm/) has to be mentioned here
because they take the Free Software principles even further and will soon have
a coreboot version with disabled Intel ME.

------
kayoone
System76 gained some popularity from the frustration about the latest MBP, so
i guess this is their response to that. I don't really buy the text about
their vision and goals though, in the past they have not really been well
known for great build quality or good design. They basically sold pre-
installed Linux on rebranded chinese laptops. Their new goals are ambitious
and sound too ambitious but i wish them best of luck.

I am quite happy with my 2016 MBP, by no means perfect, but my overall Mac
experience did not change that much.

~~~
brightball
Right now the biggest thing that they have going for them is a fairly well
known brand in the market, which is a big deal considering who they are up
against. It's a real growth opportunity if they can really differentiate
themselves with a quality experience.

~~~
ruben_varnish
One of the most well executed marketing stunts ever seen must be the "Powered
by Ubuntu Linux" stickers that System76 provided back in the day when your OS
was still relevant and people thought Ubuntu would be the next big thing in
the desktop/laptop space.

I have personally learned so much from that experience that it is very
difficult to overlook when thinking of brand hacks.

------
artellectual
Don't be shy to look at what Apple is doing. They got it right! I would be
happy to pay premium for an excellent build quality linux laptop.

~~~
d0vs
Apple build overpriced low-end perf laptops with high build quality, I'd
rather have performance at a way lower price.

~~~
Hydraulix989
The "build quality" means it looks nice, but it sure isn't durable. If you
spill liquid on an Apple, it's a dead machine. If you drop an Apple, it's also
dead. Thinkpads can survive a hell of a lot more abuse.

~~~
ruben_varnish
Every time a friend or colleague asks why I use "that" I simply thrown my
laptop to the floor, pick it up and continue working on it.

Then I ask them to try the same with their Apple laptop.

That normally makes them never ask such questions again.

I learned that from an IBM (and later a Lenovo) sales person when presenting
the X series. It's designed and built to tolerate real use. And some abuse :-)

~~~
shurcooL
People's needs and preferences differ.

I've used laptops for the last 10-15 years, often 8+ hours a day. I have not
once dropped a laptop during those years. I'm completely okay with having a
laptop that disintegrates when dropped and is better in other ways (thinner,
lighter, longer battery life) as a result of not focusing on resistance to
drops.

~~~
vbezhenar
I guess it depends on your laptop. I dropped Macbook once (it was closed and
there was a big scratch on case), but otherwise I'm very careful with it. I
didn't drop my iPhone either. But when I owned old indestructible Nokia phone,
I dropped it few times a week, just because I didn't really care. If I would
own indestructible laptop, I might drop it as well sometimes. If I'm laying on
bed with laptop and I want to sleep, I have to carefully position laptop on
the floor. But I would happily threw it away, if I could, it would be so much
easier.

------
gnud
I'm currently looking for my next linux laptop. Unfortunately, system76 is out
because it doesn't seem like they offer any other keyboard layouts than US?

~~~
Morgawr
I bought a System76 laptop 5 years ago, still use it today. It's not perfect
and I had some issues in the past but it's still going strong. I did buy it
with a UK keyboard layout and back then it was an option, I'm not sure if
things have changed since then though.

~~~
pawadu
wait, UK and US layouts are not the same?

~~~
trymas
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards)

------
elnygren
The problem with this is that you either do something like what Apple does
(and receive the hate for it) or then you do "what people want" and get this
[https://twitter.com/JonyIveParody/status/850350499840888833](https://twitter.com/JonyIveParody/status/850350499840888833)

AFAIK this whole System 76 blew up because of the disappointment in the newest
Macbook Pro. People say they'd wanted bigger battery and more connectors --
however, I'm a bit skeptical if those would be enough to choose a much
heavier, uglier and bulkier model when actually buying a laptop.

The way laptops are built, I'm not sure a 10-20% increase in battery size
would mean only a small change in the size of the laptop (everything fits
pretty tight in there...).

~~~
crazy2be
Fallacy of the excluded middle. They can do something more than Apple (i.e.
not _just_ USB-C ports), but less than others. The Apple design doesn't end up
being small or light, because to actually use it you need a plethora of
connectors.

At a minimum, I would expect standard USB, headphone, sd card reader, standard
HDMI, mini displayport.

You're going to have a hard time convincing me that an HDMI connector adds
more than a few grams of weight. Thickness, maybe. But even then.

VGA and ethernet could be nice too, but wouldn't see much use in my case.

The battery could be removable (i.e. half internal half external, like the
thinkpads).

Optical drive is obviously not much use in a laptop anymore and should be
external. (this one actually adds weight and not just thickness)

~~~
keymone
vga and ethernet on modern laptop is a sin. they are barely younger than 5"
floppy disks.

~~~
crazy2be
VGA is still the most common connector type I see on projectors and in
conference rooms. It's being slowly replaced by HDMI, they might be about even
now.

Ethernet is still the premier PHY layer for people who want their shit to
work. Wifi is _still_ flaky as crap these days in many places. Thus, there is
no Ethernet replacement yet.

As chriswarbo says, the age of the tech is completely irrelevant. Instead,
it's the utility / cost tradeoff that matters. A floppy drive would be
expensive in terms of weight/size, and would be useful to approximately 100
people (10 if it's 5"). VGA and Ethernet adaptors would be useful to probably
1/2 to 1/4 of the users, and cost almost nothing to have.

Also, VGA specifically is one of those ports that's _still_ really nice to
have, just in case. Last thing you want is to show up at a conference room and
not be able to plug in your laptop.

~~~
keymone
> cost almost nothing to have

you're dead wrong here. it costs space, which is a precious resource in modern
laptop builds.

i just feel like companies and people hanging on to these archaic technologies
is hindering progress and adoption of newer and better technologies. after all
_why do_ you need thunderbolt port if you already have the vga? why do you
need better wireless chip if you can always plug in the cable? these stupid
decisions are made on a level that impacts the whole industry.

~~~
jhasse
BAM:
[https://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_sony...](https://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_sonyz21vga_01_b6b4903fb5.jpg)

~~~
keymone
right, so how do i stick thunderbolt cable into that thing?

------
Theodores
Nowadays I use Intel NUC boxes for Ubuntu LTS - stick in RAM and M2 disk and
that is it, all done.

I don't see myself moving to System 76 unless they bring out an exceptional
product. For instance, if they did a desktop that contained two motherboards,
one for a 'server' and one for a 'client', then that would really help build
web apps where you don't want your 'server' to be slowed down by your IDE,
browser tabs and everything else 'client'. Such a system would have to have a
SGI style unified file system that was quick from either client or server
side, i.e. no NFS mounts.

Given that no such PC has ever existed(!) I don't see System 76 coming up with
something crazy niche that 'every developer must have'.

~~~
inimino
If your server is slowed that much by your development environment, it's going
to have a hard time dealing with (N>1) actual users. General purpose computers
are good enough, it seems unlikely the days of exotic machines and
workstations will come back.

------
hysan
Does this mean that they'll finally offer alternative/better keyboard layouts
on their laptops?

> Laptops are more complex and will follow much later.

Oh... I guess not.

Custom desktops aren't all that interesting. Especially not with the
KickStarter / other funding platform culture that caught on with the custom
desktop case community. I really don't see System76 being able to outdo
enthusiast communities in terms of what people want (SFF, quietness, form
factor, etc.). Their best bet is to work with enthusiast communities, take the
cases people are supporting/testing, and create verified + supported Linux
configs for those systems. I think they'll have far more success in creating
truly unique and useful systems going that route.

------
sniglom
Looked at the specs for the Galago Pro. Would be nice to see more details.
What's the panel type for the screen? What is the battery capacity and the
estimated battery life? What kind of wifi is inside? Is it 802.11ac, 3x3 MIMO?
What ports does it have for storage, is it 2.5" sata, m.2 or both?

Edit: When customizing the machine I can see that it has m.2 and 2.5" sata.
The wifi is 802.11ac 2x2 or 3x3.

~~~
wuschel
I am looking to replace my good old faithful IBM X61.

Currently, size wise, it's only the 2016 Macbook that has made an impression
on my eye - and I am not really happy with putting so much money on the table
for a sub-par performance notebook.

I like the hardware specs of the Galago Pro. Unfortunately, I can't say that
for the design. So much wasted real estate (e.g. screen).

------
gregwebs
I hope this is what they need to create a great product. I am so glad I just
got a Dell Precision 5520 (Ubuntu) and am no longer using a System76 laptop.
The System76 didn't necessarily have driver issues, but was falling apart from
day 1. The Dell works perfectly.

It is a little odd that they are starting by re-designing their desktops:
their desktops actually work well.

------
DeepYogurt
Ya you guys! Looking forward to some custom designs. Do a thinkpad x200 style
(no pop down ethernet port) and you will have my money.

~~~
joatmon-snoo
They're doing desktops first but I do have to agree here. My daily is a x220
and I'm a big fan of the industrial yet slick feel of the machine.

~~~
ekianjo
> X220

And the keyboard, as well.

~~~
8draco8
Thinkpads are awesome but I like X230 keyboard style better. The only thing
that I don't like is PrintScreen button placement.

------
hans0l074
Good luck! I'm always pleased to see news about S76 pop-up on HN. I'm a proud
owner of two S76 laptops, a Galago Pro from late 2014 and an Oryx Pro from
mid-2016. Both are going strong (though the Galago needs to be plugged in, the
battery is nearly dead). My Oryx is a beaut (and a beast!). 64GB of RAM,
2x512GB SSD's - one running Ubuntu, the other Win 10. At work, we can run our
entire platform on it. They shipped to Finland on time, very satisfactory
builds. I missed the NVidia 1080's by a month or two, but the GTX 980M lets me
play, for example, Dragon Age:Inquisition at very high settings. I love these
machines. I still use my Macbooks, but for all dev/gaming purposes the Oryx
has been very productive to use. Excited to see whats next from them.

------
oliwarner
This is a brave step. Taking control over design and manufacturing is going to
be expensive.

I guess that's why they're starting on desktops. You can limit custom
fabrication to the cases and then it's just part-picking. There's also good
margin on peripherals.

But ultimately where this is going to make or break them is on laptops. The
problem there is it's powers more expensive. Mainboard design, screens,
batteries and a much lower uptake of high-margin peripherals.

That said, many, many developers are happy to drop a few thousand on a _good_
portable because it's a business expense they can easily justify. There's
money to be had if they get it right. In that vein, they need to get away from
their current image of rebadging generic hardware. Ergonomics are important.

------
nkkollaw
Interesting.

System76 is not known to do they things they say in the article, though, like
building laptops that work perfectly on Ubuntu and will work with future
generations.

Hopefully their design will improve, too.

------
cwyers
> Today, we can’t design and manufacture our products. We outsource this work.
> It’s similar to how Tesla used a Lotus chassis for their first car. (Like
> their Roadster, the outside of our computers might look similar to others
> but it’s the inside that counts.) The strategy was cash efficient and
> allowed us to focus on developing high value areas of the company. However,
> knowing what we wanted to build but without the means to do so left us
> constantly yearning for more.

...

> Phase three moves product design and manufacturing in house. We’re about to
> build the Model S of computers. Something so brilliant and beautiful that
> reviewers will have to add an 11 to their scores. Being that we’re System76
> and we do things the System76 way, our design principles are polar opposite
> of the rest of the industry.

Is this serious? The Tesla Model S was a serious gamechangers for the
viability of electric cars. Dell and Lenovo have made "OEM computers with
Linux support" a solved problem space. These guys think they're going to leap
from selling rebadged Taiwanese MacBook clones to coming up with original PC
designs so great that they beat what Apple and its mountains of cash can put
out? Are they serious?

~~~
cassidyjames
There were plenty of electric cars before the Model S. You might say that
"electric cars" was a solved problem space. Around that time, Tesla was
"selling rebadged European sports cars" in low quantities as a proof of
concept. Of course there's no way they could beat GM and what their mountains
of cash could put out. But Tesla steadily built out their Model S production,
and rapidly became the poster child for the viability of electric cars. They
have been extremely successful since.

I think it's entirely possible that a similar situation can happen in the PC
space, and System76 believe they're positioned to do it.

Disclaimer, I do happen to be a web developer at System76. But the argument
stands; you can disagree that System76 has the ability to execute on this
vision, but after building a very successful business around Linux computers
for 11 years, I happen to believe it's going to happen.

~~~
cwyers
There were electric cars before the Model S. None of them were especially
commercially viable. The Tesla has the potential to be something like the iPod
or the iPhone, in terms of transforming a product category. Yes, there were
MP3 players and Blackberries and PalmPilots, but they didn't deliver the same
level of experience as what came after. I don't believe that there are similar
opportunities in the PC desktop and laptop markets, which are contracting,
commoditized markets.

------
headmelted
I'm not really sure what's being said here, though?

They're going to build better computers in a few years, is the message I got
from it. Are they showing/announcing anything today?

Side note: is the Bonobo really rocking dual GTX 1080's? Like the full-size
desktop 1080's?

I don't game as much as I once did so I'm behind the times on mobility
graphics (I understand they've come a long way), but that really impresses me.

~~~
morganvachon
With the 10xx series Nvidia has done away with mobile versions of their chips;
now if your laptop has a 10xx chip it is the same one as the desktop card. I
love this concept; it does away with confusion on the consumer's part.
Previously if you bought a laptop with a GTX 980M, you'd expect based on the
model number to get desktop GTX 980 performance, when you're actually getting
desktop GTX 670 performance. With the new system, you buy a laptop with a 1080
and you get a 1080 performance-wise (minus some thermal throttling of course).

------
mmgutz
To be frank, I've never been impressed by system76 laptops. They're more
expensive and often bulkier. It seems like they just rebrand name brand
laptops and ugly ones at that. Maybe the manufacturing in house will change
that.

I bought an ultralight Acer of so-so quality and the thing runs Xubuntu, i3
almost flawlessly out of the box. I'm not going to pretend it's a Macbook Air
or XPS but it matches them in function for a lot less money.

------
mschuster91
They're prototyping desktop PCs with acrylic? How does that even work, given
that metal sheets are vastly thinner than plastic?

And for the laptops: with the rate of tech innovation I am afraid that when
they release a laptop it will be one or two generations of CPU behind... and I
also doubt they'll be able to produce something that comes into range with the
2015 MBP (not the awful Late 2016 model). Key points are fan loudness (I have
yet to see a powerful AND silent x86 laptop other than the MBP), the trackpad
(again, Apple wins with size and functionality by far) and the battery life -
I can get 4-6h of Netflix on a single charge, hard to beat this given that
Apple has literally billions of cash available to tweak OS X to their hardware
for maximum power efficiency.

------
ianai
I really hope they laser focus on one, solid model. And I wish it was a
laptop. Who does desktops anymore?

------
afandian
They seem to be a step ahead of Starbucks
[http://www.theonion.com/article/starbucks-to-begin-
sinister-...](http://www.theonion.com/article/starbucks-to-begin-sinister-
phase-two-of-operation-416)

------
hexmiles
I always wanted to take a system76 laptop, what stopped my so far is the
price, they are a bit more expensive for similar hardware than other brands.

Do the extra money go to a better construction quality and material? Right now
i'm using an asus and i'm a little depressed about the general durability. The
one i was using before break after no more than 3.5 year, but i started having
problem during the first year of use. I think i need something a little more
"rugged".

My usual price tag is 500€, but i will pay more for a more robust laptop.

------
stratigos
Ive had one of the higher end System76 machines purely as a work (software
development) laptop for over a year, and I absolutely love it. They (appear
to) have great customer service, I like their products, and would absolutely
consider them for my next dev laptop.

This is mainly in response to that Reddit thread from many years ago which
basically spread the neg against System76. I was cautious due to being biased
from the negative reviews of the past, but would consider my experience
evidence that its at least not that way now :).

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akinalci
If you want a MacBook-quality laptop running Linux, the obvious thing to do is
put Linux on a MacBook. There's only an issue if the MacBook is out of your
price range, or they Apple doesn't support a specific build you want. But will
this company be able to deliver custom-designed, high quality hardware at a
lower price point?

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_jal
I build my own desktops, but if I didn't, I'd totally buy System76. A friend
has one; nice stuff.

Really hope this works out - not only do I love seeing Linux plays, quirky
plays, contrarian plays, and quirky, contrarian Linux plays, but also, we need
more alternatives to Dell/Lenovo.

Also also, they seem like great people.

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BlackjackCF
I'd be interested to see what they're offering. They're slowly hitting the
market of devs with the Galago Pro. Still, it's not quite there since most of
their stuff is just Clevo (at least that's what I've heard?)

I ended up buying a XPS 15" in lieu of not buying a MBP.

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scns
disclaimer: i'm not affiliated with that company (i'd love to own such a
machine though)

in germany you can buy a 13,3" FHD laptop with up to 32GiB ram and
preinstalled ubuntuflavors starting at 1099€ here:

[https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/Linux-Hardware/Linux-
Noteboo...](https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/Linux-Hardware/Linux-
Notebooks/10-14-Zoll/TUXEDO-InfinityBook-Pro-13-matt-Full-HD-IPS-
Aluminiumgehaeuse-Intel-Core-i7-U-CPU-bis-32GB-RAM-zwei-HDD/SSD-bis-12h-Akku-
Typ-C-Thunderbolt.geek)

keyboardlayouts for a lot of countries and plenty of other customization
options available. Batterylife is claimed to be 12 hours. Weight is 1,3kg.

edit: added weight, starting price

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ilaksh
Really like the idea of computers built for Linux, but I configured a system
on their site and it came out to $3000, whereas when I added the components up
it seems like less than $2500.

So I'm not sure there is quite enough incentive for me to pay the extra $500.

~~~
mstade
If that extra $500 comes with solid support, down to calling a rep and having
a replacement box show up the same or next day, then it's a no-brained for any
kind of professional.

If I lose a couple of days to having to figure stuff out with a faulty
machine, as opposed to solving the immediate issue of having a box that works
right now, I will have lost significantly more than $500.

This is why I buy Apple hardware with Apple Care, by the way. Whenever I've
run into an issue I walk into an Apple Store or call customer service and have
the issue resolved right away. Sure the up front cost is higher, but the time
and money saved on not having to care is priceless.

It has to be said though, that the hardware is only half the story. I also
make heavy use of spideroak and iCloud for backup of pretty much everything,
as well as init scripts to get a brand new machine configured in less than an
hour.

If these guys can provide the same solid hardware + support + cloud story (by
themselves or through partners) then I'd say the price tag is competitive.

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hellofunk
> We outsource this work. It’s similar to how Tesla used a Lotus chassis for
> their first car.

If there is one certainty in this world, it's the apt comparison of System76
to Tesla.

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markbnj
I'm rooting for System76, and I hope this move is successful and leads to a
better product, because the current products are not competitive in terms of
design and build quality.

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criddell
System76 should make sure you can disable the Intel Management stuff.

I know Intel claims otherwise, but an always running background OS feels like
a back door to me.

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BadassFractal
MBP Linux killer from System76? I'm not optimistic about them being able to
pull it off, but I'll certainly root for them.

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tracker1
Aside: is it really so hard to have a company blog link to the company's main
website in an obvious way?

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spir
Congrats! Looking forward to being a customer.

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enibundo
Nice, isn't this 'lil bit expensive?

~~~
lvh
A lot of the target market is buying MBPs right now, demonstrating that
they're not particularly price-sensitive. The new Galapago Pro is
significantly cheaper than a similarly-specced MBP.

~~~
enibundo
I had to google MBP :).

I would buy none of these two btw, unless they tell me that they didn't rip
off little children in some remote place... In that case I'd even pay lil bit
extra.

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knodi
I'm really hoping they offer a Ultrabook soon.

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standardly
I'm not a young system anymore.

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dustinkirkland
<3 <3 <3 System76!

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chrisan
We're all Systems now

