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

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

#211
post #108
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all Clevo based anyway. System76 doesn't go much beyond what they source. It's a shame, if they actually made the effort to design a laptop that went beyond its foundation, I'd be more interested. But instead it's Clevo guts, Clevo problems. Looking at the AMD laptop linked... Lots of empty space that could have been slightly optimized for a larger battery. It just seems basically thought out... not like conside…

System76 can afford to design their own laptops after enough people order the existing models.

System76 has been around for 16 years. If they wanted to design their own laptop, they would have done so by now.

Other companies like Purism, MNT, and Pine64 have gone way further than system76 despite being much younger.

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

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very distinguishable after daily use of a MacBook Pro.

Yeah ok but this is a computer for hackers, not people who decide what shade grey to make text on a website.

Realistically the main appeal of very high resolution laptop screens is text, not images. The people doing professional colour work typically aren’t using any sort of laptop screen.

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

#213

This is an huge deal : the 5700U is faster than the Mac M1 at the same wattage https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Apple-M1-8-Core-3200-MH...

If you have embarrassingly parallel loads, sure.

But:

    CPU Single Thread Rating
    Apple M1  - 3,778
    AMD 5700U - 2,636
suggests that "is faster" is going to depend on your perspective. Most loads I care about are single threaded.

The 5700U is 8% faster on a synthetic multi-core benchmark vs. 30% slower on a single core benchmark. I know which CPU I'd choose if I had a choice.

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

#214

Uhh I understand that good Linux support is valuable, but the price premium for that is just too high. For the base variant(5500u, 8gb, 240gb): Pangolin - 1200$ Lenovo Ideapad 3 15 - 430$[1] For a higher-end variant(5700u, 16gb, 500gb): Pangolin - 1542$ HP 15z - 640$[2] I admit these are the absolute cheapest ones I could find(using noteb.com), but even the more premium laptops like Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAI…

I don't know about the quality of the pangolin or the HP but I can tell you that lenovos consumer level laptops are pretty trash quality wise. The thinkpads (at least the X,T and P models) tend to be a different story but even that is changing in recent years

I am using a Lenovo Duet Chromebook (has good Linux container support) right now, and it is cheap and has good build quality. It is not particularly fast but it was about $260 including pen and keyboard case.

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

#215

Uhh I understand that good Linux support is valuable, but the price premium for that is just too high. For the base variant(5500u, 8gb, 240gb): Pangolin - 1200$ Lenovo Ideapad 3 15 - 430$[1] For a higher-end variant(5700u, 16gb, 500gb): Pangolin - 1542$ HP 15z - 640$[2] I admit these are the absolute cheapest ones I could find(using noteb.com), but even the more premium laptops like Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAI…

> Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAIK they also provide very good Linux support)

My own experience with thinkpads has been one of non-stop frustration with battery life. The T495 advertises something like 14h of battery life; the actual battery life I got running stock Ubuntu on it was.... less than 3 hours, and that's with power optimization packages that do things like making USB no longer work installed. I recently switched to a system76, and so far its battery lasts easily 6-9 hours depending on what I'm doing.

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

#216

Uhh I understand that good Linux support is valuable, but the price premium for that is just too high. For the base variant(5500u, 8gb, 240gb): Pangolin - 1200$ Lenovo Ideapad 3 15 - 430$[1] For a higher-end variant(5700u, 16gb, 500gb): Pangolin - 1542$ HP 15z - 640$[2] I admit these are the absolute cheapest ones I could find(using noteb.com), but even the more premium laptops like Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAI…

Before you conclude that Thinkpad have good Linux support, go on over to lenovo's Q&A forum and look up battery issues for the t14. At this point in time I've spent so much time on this that I could have easily saved 5k or 10k by having a machine that just worked!

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

#217

Uhh I understand that good Linux support is valuable, but the price premium for that is just too high. For the base variant(5500u, 8gb, 240gb): Pangolin - 1200$ Lenovo Ideapad 3 15 - 430$[1] For a higher-end variant(5700u, 16gb, 500gb): Pangolin - 1542$ HP 15z - 640$[2] I admit these are the absolute cheapest ones I could find(using noteb.com), but even the more premium laptops like Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAI…

>but even the more premium laptops like Thinkpads are way cheaper(and AFAIK they also provide very good Linux support).

This has not been the case in 5 years.

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

#220
post #57
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Southpaw here! I'd never buy a laptop without a number pad. The track pad being off-center is also good. Gaming? 78462 make for the best movement, and the number pad also has seven non-numerical buttons to bind things to. It also puts your index finger right next to lENTER, which is so useful for games that make use of it. Programming? Bind the buttons to commonly-used UNIX programs to make for a better IDE than an I…

Another big one is Blender; I don't think I could use it without a numpad.
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