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System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

forbes.com

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Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#61

Post by mroche »

mariushn wrote: post #59
isantop wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

System76 developer here. We do offer several AMD option on our Thelio line (and they're less expensive than the corresponding Intel options, generally speaking).

Laptop, please, with Ryzen 7, AMD Radeon RX Vega, 16gb RAM, SSD 256gb, 14", no numpad keys. eg https://altex.ro/laptop-asus-zenbook-14-um431da-am030-amd-ry...

Most vendors will likely wait for the Zen 2 mobile offerings before choosing to offer AMD lineups. There are some right now using Picasso (Lenovo has several), but it’s a smarter play to wait for the better chips that more closely compare to consumer expectations for mobile devices next year. I believe it’ll be worth the wait.

I’m personally hoping/waiting for a Zen 2 system with full fledged USB 4 support. If newer Bluetooth and WiFi can be included, that would be awesome. Maybe a Radeon dGPU, too.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#62

Post by xxpor »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16
xxpor wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why POWER over Arm?

Better performance for the same footprint as x86. Sadly they would not save much money as the POWER support ecosystem is manufactured in lower volumes so it costs more per chip.

I've heard the power requirements for POWER make it not feasible for a laptop though?

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#63

Post by 7thaccount »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #40
nepeckman wrote: post #3

Awesome news. I bought a Darter Pro back in March and the experience has been great. I was a little hesitant at first because I'm not a Linux expert, but their team puts a lot of effort into making sure stuff with Pop_Os "just works." It might not be quite as polished as a macbook, but it's a comparable product at half the price, plus I get to support open source. Thelio looks amazing and I'm excited to see what they…

One of the reasons I didn't get a System76 machine was because of how Pop!_os is branded. Everything about its branding, from the name itself to even the footer background on the website looks like a complete joke to me. Of course, maybe there is a demographic that is in to this sort of branding, but I bet it's more of a detriment to overall sales than anything. Is the OS as full of seconds-long bouncy animations and…

You can select either Ubuntu LTS or POP!_OS when building a System76 computer.

I built one with PoPOS (however you spell it) about 6-8 months ago and absolutely love it. I've previously used Xubuntu, Linux Mint, and Fedora and PoP!OS had a lot of the things everyone installed already taken care of and the UI is useful, but minimalistic.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#64

Post by 7thaccount »

curt15 wrote: post #38
Finnucane wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still feel they should've used those resources to improve an existing distro instead of creating their own Since Pop_Os is derived from Ubuntu, you could argue that this is just what they did.

When bugs get fixed in upstream projects, do they have to first land in Ubuntu and then filter down to Pop_os? Or does Pop_Os point directly at Ubuntu repositories?

Honestly not sure, but my POP!OS distro tells me it has new updates almost daily in a little notification at the top.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#65

Post by matheusmoreira »

bobongo wrote: post #46
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29

I'm pulling for System76 in principle, but I've never been able to take the plunge on one because their chunkier Clevo/Sager-based designs have always paled aesthetically in comparison to the Dell XPS 13 line. Maybe that will finally change when they can design their own.

Did you take a look at these? https://system76.com/laptops/darter https://system76.com/laptops/galago I have one of the chunkier ones. The roominess of its insides make me happy whenever I open it up (e.g. to clean it up).

It seems the Darter Pro has the same keyboard as my Clevo PA70ES. Same layout, same hotkeys on the numpad. Any way to confirm that it's the same model? My keyboard's USB data:

  idVendor           0x048d Integrated Technology Express, Inc.
  idProduct          0x8910
  bcdDevice            0.01
  iManufacturer           1 ITE Tech. Inc.
  iProduct                2 ITE Device(829x)
I'm asking because I wrote a user space driver for the keyboard LEDs. If it's the same model, maybe they'd be interested in taking a look at it:

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/ite-829x

I found a WMI driver in their repositories but it doesn't match the way my keyboard works:

https://github.com/pop-os/system76-dkms/blob/master/system76...

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#66

Post by Rotareti »

geoka9 wrote: post #4

Please consider adding an Ultranav-like pointing device and an API for the battery-controlling EC (start/stop charging thresholds - unless you already have that). FWIW those are the only things that are keeping me glued to the Thinkpad line.

Same here. I love to keep my hands on the home row. Nothing can beat a pointer with a concave cap!

I check the system76 laptops every once in a while only to see if they added a pointer yet.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#67

Post by LordHog »

bobongo wrote: post #46
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29

I'm pulling for System76 in principle, but I've never been able to take the plunge on one because their chunkier Clevo/Sager-based designs have always paled aesthetically in comparison to the Dell XPS 13 line. Maybe that will finally change when they can design their own.

Did you take a look at these? https://system76.com/laptops/darter https://system76.com/laptops/galago I have one of the chunkier ones. The roominess of its insides make me happy whenever I open it up (e.g. to clean it up).

Recently I was looking at their laptops, but with a resolution of only 1920x1080, unless I wanted to buy one of the thicker laptops, was a deal breaker. Perhaps once they start making their own they will bump up the resolution, but until then I will wait.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#68

Post by basilgohar »

smacktoward wrote: post #33
basilgohar wrote: post #19

I love the concept of System76, full stop. What has kept me from seriously considering them, however, is the absence of AMD-powered systems from them. I understand the ubiquity of Intel-based hardware, but I don't full get why not even an option of an AMD-based system is available. If they're going to go their own way in terms of hardware design, I would hope that they at least opened a line of dialog with AMD to exp…

> I don't full get why not even an option of an AMD-based system is available. Intel has been mired in an anti-trust lawsuit in the EU for a decade now, on charges that they offer deep discounts to OEMs on the condition that they don't ship products from competitors (read: AMD) in volume. Such a program would put substantial pressure on OEMs to avoid AMD, since they'd still need to ship a large number of Intel-based…

This explains the dearth of options with other OEMs. This should not be a major factor for System76 who, with all due respect, arguably should hardly be a blip on Intel's radar.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#69

Post by basilgohar »

isantop wrote: post #53
basilgohar wrote: post #19

I love the concept of System76, full stop. What has kept me from seriously considering them, however, is the absence of AMD-powered systems from them. I understand the ubiquity of Intel-based hardware, but I don't full get why not even an option of an AMD-based system is available. If they're going to go their own way in terms of hardware design, I would hope that they at least opened a line of dialog with AMD to exp…

System76 developer here. We do offer several AMD option on our Thelio line (and they're less expensive than the corresponding Intel options, generally speaking).

That's very encouraging to hear! I hope that this does end-up extending to your laptop line. At least you're participation in this thread means S76 knows HN folks are paying attention to this detail.

Re: System76 Will Start Designing and Building Its Own Linux Laptops in January 2020

#70

Post by basilgohar »

nullc wrote: post #28
basilgohar wrote: post #19

I love the concept of System76, full stop. What has kept me from seriously considering them, however, is the absence of AMD-powered systems from them. I understand the ubiquity of Intel-based hardware, but I don't full get why not even an option of an AMD-based system is available. If they're going to go their own way in terms of hardware design, I would hope that they at least opened a line of dialog with AMD to exp…

At least people know how to largely deactivate intel me, not so for the amd PSP stuff. :(

That's unfortunate. I'd love to know more about this.
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