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System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

system76.com

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Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#11

Post by Klonoar »

johnzim wrote: post #8
protomyth wrote: post #2

I wish a person could order one of these without the numeric keypad. I deeply hate being off-center to the screen when typing on these larger portables.

I have no idea who thought this was a good idea. The trackpad is even off to the left to accommodate it. I'm not a fan of symmetry for symmetry's sake, but I do think some affordances for the human body might be a good idea. How do southpaws enjoy this keyboard setup? The ergonomics of laptops are bad enough without stuff like this.

>I have no idea who thought this was a good idea.

You and many others probably know this, but figure it's helpful context for others who might stumble through this thread: it's not necessarily all on System76 as to why that shell is used, since the shells themselves are (IIRC) rebranded Clevo shells still.

i.e I would suspect they're making use of what they can reasonably acquire to sell.

(The offset aspect would drive me mad as well)

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#14

Post by jjoonathan »

johnzim wrote: post #8
protomyth wrote: post #2

I wish a person could order one of these without the numeric keypad. I deeply hate being off-center to the screen when typing on these larger portables.

I have no idea who thought this was a good idea. The trackpad is even off to the left to accommodate it. I'm not a fan of symmetry for symmetry's sake, but I do think some affordances for the human body might be a good idea. How do southpaws enjoy this keyboard setup? The ergonomics of laptops are bad enough without stuff like this.

I love numeric keypads. I don't have to type in big chunks of numbers very often (OCR and GPIB go a long way) but when I do, numeric pads make me hate life a lot less.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#15

Post by acomjean »

neogodless wrote: post #10

Obviously the "Linux-first" is a big value-add for this brand, but the hardware for the price isn't amazing. $1200 gets you a Zen 2 (previous generation) 6-core, 12-thread CPU[0], 8GB RAM, 240 GB NVME, 15" 1080p (did not see brightness/color accuracy mentioned.) But I like my laptops to come with fast refresh and a dedicated GPU, and I run Windows, so I'm not their target audience. Would love to hear how this is rece…

You are right that's the value add. Not having to worry if the hardware works and having a curated linux (popOS is very much like ubuntu).

I've had a system 76 onyx laptop running popOS for over 2 years now. It keeps itself updated and I'm able to do my tasks with very minimal system configurations. Firmware updates come through fine. I think Linux hardware support is pretty good for a lot of laptops, but for me it was worth the extra money not to have to deal with it.

My system 76 is "Clevo" OEMed machine. Very much evidenced when I let stuff get in the fan and I had to replace it. Parts are available.

https://www.clevo.com.tw/index-en.asp

As someone who is new to Linux on desktop, it was pretty great. I got Unreal engine compiled, Intelij and It can even use steam. My machine has a Nvidia 1060? so its actually pretty decent for the limited gaming I do.

Like many things, if things go well and this scales up, the additional cost for having staff making sure linux is supported should go down.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#16

Post by superbaconman »

protomyth wrote: post #2

I wish a person could order one of these without the numeric keypad. I deeply hate being off-center to the screen when typing on these larger portables.

I use a tenkeyless on my desktop for exactly this reason. I could always shift a normal keyboard over to center it, but then my mouse is way off to the side.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#18

Post by abledon »

ruined wrote: post #12

1080p screen is a no-go. come on yall, it's 2021

Isn't 1080p way better for battery life + its mostly indistinguishable in pixels? unless you are like, looking really close at the pixels? remember its 1080p inside a 15" monitor, not a 24" monitor a PC has.

Re: System76 Pangolin Linux-first laptop with AMD internals now in stock

#20

Post by neogodless »

jandrese wrote: post #9

The specs page is a bit vague in places. Graphics AMD Radeon™ Graphics Storage 1 x M.2 SSD(SATA or PCIe NVMe). Up to 2TB total. In the configurator you have to pay attention to the read speeds to figure out if you are getting a SATA or PCIe drive. There is no indication for which brand of drive they are using. I have a few SSD controllers that are on my do not buy list, like anything made by Sandforce[1] after we los…

While you're right that the brand is not listed, every single drive in the configurator lists NVME. The "Storage" specification you show is just what the M.2 connection supports as far as interface. So if you have an existing SATA M.2 drive, or want to buy one to save money, you can.

The graphics are integrated into the APU, so you can look up their specifications.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-5500u

https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-5700u

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