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https://www.system76.com/

I have to replace a 9 year old Thinkpad that has been the "house" laptop. My wife's school just went to Macs, I run Linux on my machines and my daughter's laptop has Linux on it. So I see no reason to get a Windows machine. The 15", speced out the way I would order it, is just a hair over $1000. Just curious to see if any gerbils have dealt with these guys.

--SS

I am not familiar with them, but I'm glad to see OEMs (even small ones) supporting Linux. But WHY, OH WHY would you ship a non-LTS version of Ubuntu on a pre-built system? The non-LTS releases tend to be half-baked, and only get security updates for 18 months (to be shortened to 9 months in future versions) from the date of original release. (If there was an option to back off to 12.04 LTS I didn't see it.)

I have never heard of them, but I will say I just today read this article at Ars, reviewing this Dell with LTS 12.04
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/ ... ok-review/

Not the best article on Linux i have ever read, but your post brought it to mind.

They list the price at $1500, but with as many sales and coupons as Dell always has out, I'd think you could get it close to $1000.

At least you would have a Tier 1 hardware and development support, not to mention options for better warranties.

Just a thought.

What were your specs?

Dposcorp wrote:

I have never heard of them, but I will say I just today read this article at Ars, reviewing this Dell with LTS 12.04
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/ ... ok-review/

Not the best article on Linux i have ever read, but your post brought it to mind.

They list the price at $1500, but with as many sales and coupons as Dell always has out, I'd think you could get it close to $1000.

At least you would have a Tier 1 hardware and development support, not to mention options for better warranties.

Just a thought.

What were your specs?

My specs were i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB drive, matte screen. I saw the Dell. Unfortunately, it's not available yet. I do like that it is an ultra-book though. I might also consider the new Toshiba that was in the front page news too, if I wait long enough to find out whether it is any good. I'm also considering a 13" Macbook w/ retina display so while I'd rather not spend more than needed, the $1500 Dell isn't out of the ballpark.

JBI, to your point, I agree. I'm not really worried about that though. The fact that it comes with Linux loaded means the hardware works reasonably well and I have no problem loading my own distro. I wouldn't use stock Ubuntu anyway. I'd at least switch over to Kubuntu or one of the other Ubuntu derivatives.

--SS

SecretSquirrel wrote:

JBI, to your point, I agree. I'm not really worried about that though. The fact that it comes with Linux loaded means the hardware works reasonably well and I have no problem loading my own distro. I wouldn't use stock Ubuntu anyway. I'd at least switch over to Kubuntu or one of the other Ubuntu derivatives.

Yeah, I realize that in your case it's probably not an issue. But it is potentially going to result in a lot of people having a negative out-of-box experience.

just brew it! wrote:

SecretSquirrel wrote:

JBI, to your point, I agree. I'm not really worried about that though. The fact that it comes with Linux loaded means the hardware works reasonably well and I have no problem loading my own distro. I wouldn't use stock Ubuntu anyway. I'd at least switch over to Kubuntu or one of the other Ubuntu derivatives.

Yeah, I realize that in your case it's probably not an issue. But it is potentially going to result in a lot of people having a negative out-of-box experience.

No arguments there. Though I do have to wonder how many non-geeks would search out and purchase a Linux laptop from an "unknown" vendor. Still, I would think that stock should be LTS with an option for the current load in the config if you want.

--SS

SecretSquirrel wrote:

https://www.system76.com/

I have to replace a 9 year old Thinkpad that has been the "house" laptop. My wife's school just went to Macs, I run Linux on my machines and my daughter's laptop has Linux on it. So I see no reason to get a Windows machine. The 15", speced out the way I would order it, is just a hair over $1000. Just curious to see if any gerbils have dealt with these guys.

--SS

I know quite a few colleagues that have purchased from them and they have not had anything but praise for them. They have been well known in the Linux community for quite a few years.

They are very well known in the linux community you could say. They essentially take hardware from the major OEMs and "curate" the hardware and make it even more Linux friendly. They even provide the drivers into the system. It is ready to go as soon as you power that baby on. On the website you can download them too if you decide to go with another distro. And it doesn't matter which distro you go with, it will work. And the upgrades are reasonably priced. The reviews that i have read from the laptops are essentially lackluster in the battery department.

If i was forced to take a laptop i'd take theirs just to try them out; the one that i'd really like to buy is the Leopard Extreme. And you would be supporting a small independent linux vendor.

The arrow keys on the keyboard would bug me.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

The arrow keys on the keyboard would bug me.

Eh...? They're about as close to where they are on a standard PC keyboard as you can get in a laptop form factor. Or are you saying that you don't like the placement of the arrow keys on a standard keyboard? (You're certainly entitled to that opinion, but you'd be wrong. )

System76 is a Clevo reseller on their laptops.

You should be able to get the same models from Sager and many others. Of course those will come with the Windows tax.

Ryu Connor wrote:

System76 is a Clevo reseller on their laptops.

You should be able to get the same models from Sager and many others. Of course those will come with the Windows tax.

It requires a certain level of resources to build your own custom laptops. Every company that wants to build one has to create a proprietary design. It is not like a desktop where we have open established standards like ATX. This allows a level of freedom that is not present in laptop. I hope to one day be able to build a laptop just like you would a desktop.

System76 is a small company, and yes, they are essentially a reseller due to the fact they don't probably have the resources for their own proprietary designs.

just brew it! wrote:

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

The arrow keys on the keyboard would bug me.

Eh...? They're about as close to where they are on a standard PC keyboard as you can get in a laptop form factor. Or are you saying that you don't like the placement of the arrow keys on a standard keyboard? (You're certainly entitled to that opinion, but you'd be wrong. )

On the numpad, the zero is half-size. And they took out the size that most typists use. Similarly the control is shoved over and doesn't line up with the edge of the shift key.

Although it isn't System76 branded, I have one of the "15.6" Pangolin Performance" laptops (actually a Clevo W258EU) setting on my desk at the moment. It's OK. In terms of PC performance, it's much the same as any other laptop of that spec on the market. The screen is adequate although I wish it wasn't 1366x768. The laptop feels reasonably solid although compared to a Thinkpad or a Macbook Pro (also sitting on my desk) it looks and feels plasticy and cheap. "Exceptional Quality and Finish" is overselling it to say the least. Getting at the innards is easy, you have easy access to the hard drive, CPU, memory, wireless and there's a SIM slot and antenna for a 3G modem if you want it. The trackpad is a standard Synaptics thing and pretty awful.

The NIC has been a jMicron one for a couple of generations but they're now putting Realtek ones in. They can get pretty toasty so you wouldn't want it on your lap, when the fan ramps up it's not that quiet either.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

On the numpad, the zero is half-size. And they took out the size that most typists use. Similarly the control is shoved over and doesn't line up with the edge of the shift key.

*Most* laptops don't have the right Control key lined up with the edge of the Shift key.

I'm very very unsure why anyone not needing gaming power would choose a Clevo. While support 76 is nice from a Linux vendor, they don't really work much with Clevo to fix some of the design issues (you don't even have to buy that many and Clevo will customize them for you.)

I see no reason to buy this vs say a MacBook or ThinkPad, both of which are well supported in Linux - sometimes still better supported than the System76 systems. Personally I find my rMBP15 unbeatable in Linux, Windows, or OSX.

axeman wrote:

Linpus sounds like a terrible distro

I had never even heard of it until you posted that. Yes, it sounds absolutely awful, and not just because it has "pus" in the name! Fedora plus proprietary Acer bloatware/adware? Yuck! I imagine most people who buy one of those end up formatting it and installing a different distro.

What's fun is how they statically link in GPL libraries and then strip the binaries - so they can hide that they used GPL code in a closed source Adware program.