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System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

blog.system76.com

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Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#81

Post by NikolaNovak »

HankB99 wrote: post #44
morganvachon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider the cost acceptable given they don't just "slap Ubuntu on it". The hardware is curated towards 100% Linux compatibility, and their custom OS (admittedly an Ubuntu variant) is tweaked to suit the hardware. It's a good marriage and to some it's worth the extra cost. Look at it like you would a Macbook; Apple charges a premium but the benefit the buyer receives from that extra cost is hardware and software th…

Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them. Despite 2 returns for service my Thinkpad T500 remained with a loose charging connector. My next Lenovo (notably not a Thinkpad) was a Y50 Ideapad. Audio to the speakers failed, the housing developed cracks at the hinge. The Ethernet connector broke (though used very little.) and now the SD card slot has failed. I'm giving Dell a try. You can buy t…

Anything here will be Anecdata at best, but I've bought 3 refurb t420 and t420s; these are 8 years old now and still daily drivers for all my family members. The t420s in particular is my all-time favourite laptop of last 20 years, as it's thin and portable, but still modular (t420 is significantly thicker and more old-school portable), easy to upgrade and maintain, and with great keyboard with standard layout.

I have also used regularly a t450 and t470 for work, and last year bought an anniversary t25 as a Xmas gift for myself :).

Prior to that, I've used T530, T410, T60p, T41, T30, etc.

My boss has been put on notice that a Thinkpad is a "condition of employment" for me - I cannot imagine using anything else.

All of them have been absolutely positively rock solid. No issues as daily drivers for a travelling consultant - lots of plugging and unplugging, moving, backpacks, etc.

Mostly various Windows versions, but T450 and T470 are RHEL full time, and I have a T61 with Lubuntu as well.

That being said, for any brand, there'll be people with good and bad luck/experience. You have to look at your preferences, and stats...

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#82

Post by wpietri »

HankB99 wrote: post #44
morganvachon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider the cost acceptable given they don't just "slap Ubuntu on it". The hardware is curated towards 100% Linux compatibility, and their custom OS (admittedly an Ubuntu variant) is tweaked to suit the hardware. It's a good marriage and to some it's worth the extra cost. Look at it like you would a Macbook; Apple charges a premium but the benefit the buyer receives from that extra cost is hardware and software th…

Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them. Despite 2 returns for service my Thinkpad T500 remained with a loose charging connector. My next Lenovo (notably not a Thinkpad) was a Y50 Ideapad. Audio to the speakers failed, the housing developed cracks at the hinge. The Ethernet connector broke (though used very little.) and now the SD card slot has failed. I'm giving Dell a try. You can buy t…

> Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them.

Same. My Thinkpad 25 has already been back twice. And both their field service and their factory service have really gone downhill.

As much as I love the keyboard, this may be my last Thinkpad.

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#83

Post by jaabe »

tonysickpony wrote: post #63

I love Pop!_OS. I have used Gentoo, Ubuntu and Arch in the past 10 years. I ended up with Antergos packaged version of Arch with a bunch of personal tweaks. I tried different distro every now and then but always ended disappointed. My only needs for distros are to install softwares I use and run them. It turns out to be significantly hard, none of the distros do that without glitches, screen tearing and inconsistency…

> I don't have any obsession with distros. I want one that works.

This is why I became a Mac user. After 15 years of Linux I was just done with all the bullshit, but I guess I could look into Pop!_OS.

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#84

Post by baroffoos »

jaabe wrote: post #83
tonysickpony wrote: post #63

I love Pop!_OS. I have used Gentoo, Ubuntu and Arch in the past 10 years. I ended up with Antergos packaged version of Arch with a bunch of personal tweaks. I tried different distro every now and then but always ended disappointed. My only needs for distros are to install softwares I use and run them. It turns out to be significantly hard, none of the distros do that without glitches, screen tearing and inconsistency…

> I don't have any obsession with distros. I want one that works. This is why I became a Mac user. After 15 years of Linux I was just done with all the bullshit, but I guess I could look into Pop!_OS.

I have found fedora to be the just works distro as long as you pick the right hardware to start. A dell XPS + fedora has been the most productive setup I have ever had.

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#85

Post by neilv »

HankB99 wrote: post #44
morganvachon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider the cost acceptable given they don't just "slap Ubuntu on it". The hardware is curated towards 100% Linux compatibility, and their custom OS (admittedly an Ubuntu variant) is tweaked to suit the hardware. It's a good marriage and to some it's worth the extra cost. Look at it like you would a Macbook; Apple charges a premium but the benefit the buyer receives from that extra cost is hardware and software th…

Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them. Despite 2 returns for service my Thinkpad T500 remained with a loose charging connector. My next Lenovo (notably not a Thinkpad) was a Y50 Ideapad. Audio to the speakers failed, the housing developed cracks at the hinge. The Ethernet connector broke (though used very little.) and now the SD card slot has failed. I'm giving Dell a try. You can buy t…

If anyone else has a problem with a loose charging connector on T500... It looks like the T500 DC-in jack isn't mounted on a PCB, but is on a cable with a connector, and the jack is held in place wrt the chassis partly with a screw. So it might've just been the whole jack part wiggling within the chassis, and just needed a little tightening. Or just needed an $8 eBay part swapped in without soldering. Those old ThinkPad models had "Hardware Maintenance Manuals" ("HMM") PDFs that IBM/Lenovo freely shared, with step-by-step instructions for disassembly and reassembly. (Though I understand sending a new unit back, and also not wanting to possibly void warranty.)

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#86

Post by wyclif »

wpietri wrote: post #82
HankB99 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them. Despite 2 returns for service my Thinkpad T500 remained with a loose charging connector. My next Lenovo (notably not a Thinkpad) was a Y50 Ideapad. Audio to the speakers failed, the housing developed cracks at the hinge. The Ethernet connector broke (though used very little.) and now the SD card slot has failed. I'm giving Dell a try. You can buy t…

> Have you purchased a Lenovo lately? I've not had good luck with them. Same. My Thinkpad 25 has already been back twice. And both their field service and their factory service have really gone downhill. As much as I love the keyboard, this may be my last Thinkpad.

But where can you go from there? Who makes a better PC laptop?

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#87

Post by boomskats »

baroffoos wrote: post #84
jaabe wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't have any obsession with distros. I want one that works. This is why I became a Mac user. After 15 years of Linux I was just done with all the bullshit, but I guess I could look into Pop!_OS.

I have found fedora to be the just works distro as long as you pick the right hardware to start. A dell XPS + fedora has been the most productive setup I have ever had.

Second this, and add 'every thinkpad I've ever owned' to your hardware caveat.

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#88

Post by sammorrowdrums »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #55
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of hardware support, the ArchLinux people seem to be doing more than anyone to document and tweak whatever laptop I look up. Kudos to them for doing so.

I’m a big fan of the ElementaryOS approach to user interface consistency. I hope they start being an option at build from System76.

Well Cassidy, one of the ElementaryOS founders worked on Pop!_OS too and I haven't tried it, but I'd hope that it therefore has some of his UX pizzaz!

https://cassidyjames.com/resume/

Having used ElementaryOS for two years I had thought that if my next laptop was a System76 I'd give Pop a go.

I do hope they become the Mac of Linux.

Re: System76 News: Coreboot and Linux Advances

#90

Post by Jean-Philipe »

jaabe wrote: post #83
tonysickpony wrote: post #63

I love Pop!_OS. I have used Gentoo, Ubuntu and Arch in the past 10 years. I ended up with Antergos packaged version of Arch with a bunch of personal tweaks. I tried different distro every now and then but always ended disappointed. My only needs for distros are to install softwares I use and run them. It turns out to be significantly hard, none of the distros do that without glitches, screen tearing and inconsistency…

> I don't have any obsession with distros. I want one that works. This is why I became a Mac user. After 15 years of Linux I was just done with all the bullshit, but I guess I could look into Pop!_OS.

> This is why I became a Mac user.

Heard this from so many people. We have the latest (2017-2018) MBP at work and every single one has serious keyboard problems. Other than that, I have had crashes and random reboots when on battery, with a black screen error message, sound issues (solved by turning volume down, switching outputs back and forth, or rebooting) wifi problems (solved by switching off bluetooth). And don't get me started on the touch bar. From Mac fans I usually get answers like "you're pressing the touch bar wrong, you need to wait longer"... I'm also missing a decent software management. brew is miles away from apt.

So, for me switching to Mac didn't work out. And the new keyboard is a complete dealbreaker for me. I may still get an older mac with a decent keyboard and put Linux on it.

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