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System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

blog.system76.com

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Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#71

Post by morganvachon »

headmelted wrote: post #38

I'm not really sure what's being said here, though? They're going to build better computers in a few years, is the message I got from it. Are they showing/announcing anything today? Side note: is the Bonobo really rocking dual GTX 1080's? Like the full-size desktop 1080's? I don't game as much as I once did so I'm behind the times on mobility graphics (I understand they've come a long way), but that really impresses…

With the 10xx series Nvidia has done away with mobile versions of their chips; now if your laptop has a 10xx chip it is the same one as the desktop card. I love this concept; it does away with confusion on the consumer's part. Previously if you bought a laptop with a GTX 980M, you'd expect based on the model number to get desktop GTX 980 performance, when you're actually getting desktop GTX 670 performance. With the new system, you buy a laptop with a 1080 and you get a 1080 performance-wise (minus some thermal throttling of course).

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#72

Post by Angostura »

SunShiranui wrote: post #10

It's nice to see this - I'm definitely interested in seeing computers built and designed for Linux. I must say, however, I don't see that need for desktops. Custom desktops are relatively easy to build, even for customers. A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing.

> Custom desktops are relatively easy to build, even for customers.

My mum would disagree.

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#73

Post by baldfat »

noir_lord wrote: post #21
sniglom wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I have no issues building a desktop, but if somebody asked me about what (modern) components to choose for no driver issues, I wouldn't know. Avoiding issues and getting support could certainly be worth something.

I find that buying 6mths behind just under the state of the art gets you 90% of the performance often for half the cost. I've been custom building my desktops since the 90's and I can't remember the last time I had an issue with hardware, I think it was a Geforce MX440 so ~2003. The driver story on desktop hardware for Linux is absolutely great (in my experience) if the hardware has been out 6mths or more or uses a c…

When WiFi finally got to the point when 90% just works was huge. 2009?

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#74

Post by ilaksh »

Really like the idea of computers built for Linux, but I configured a system on their site and it came out to $3000, whereas when I added the components up it seems like less than $2500.

So I'm not sure there is quite enough incentive for me to pay the extra $500.

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#75

Post by sidm83 »

s_kilk wrote: post #23
SunShiranui wrote: post #10

It's nice to see this - I'm definitely interested in seeing computers built and designed for Linux. I must say, however, I don't see that need for desktops. Custom desktops are relatively easy to build, even for customers. A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing.

> A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing. It exists, it's the Thinkpad T-series. I don't get all this hand-wringing over the need for hypothetical great Linux machines when we have Thinkpads available right now.

That's not the case always. My first cheap thinkpad worked great, but the 2nd expensive one (T440p) has bad driver support for Wifi (on current and last Ubuntu LTS). Connections are unstable and throughput is ~0.3x of the dongle I use (both 2.4Ghz 802.11n). Hardware - Realtek RTL8192EE PCIe.

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#76

Post by Sir_Substance »

sniglom wrote: post #12
SunShiranui wrote: post #10

It's nice to see this - I'm definitely interested in seeing computers built and designed for Linux. I must say, however, I don't see that need for desktops. Custom desktops are relatively easy to build, even for customers. A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing.

Well, I have no issues building a desktop, but if somebody asked me about what (modern) components to choose for no driver issues, I wouldn't know. Avoiding issues and getting support could certainly be worth something.

I agree, but this is more of a documentation issue than anything. I stopped bothering to look at the Ubuntu "supported hardware" page a few years ago because I could tell from the graphics card listed (and not listed) that it hadn't been updated since about 2011.

I appreciate that hardware testing is complex and expensive, but I'd love to see an annual "high spec" and "low spec" Ubuntu reference build, with a price tag of maybe $1500 and $600 respectively, that have been tested and confirmed working with the current LTS.

That having been said, I wouldn't pay system76 a premium for it. I'd do what I've done every year so far, which is search a bit and then ultimately buy what I want and cross my fingers.

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#77

Post by mstade »

ilaksh wrote: post #74

Really like the idea of computers built for Linux, but I configured a system on their site and it came out to $3000, whereas when I added the components up it seems like less than $2500. So I'm not sure there is quite enough incentive for me to pay the extra $500.

If that extra $500 comes with solid support, down to calling a rep and having a replacement box show up the same or next day, then it's a no-brained for any kind of professional.

If I lose a couple of days to having to figure stuff out with a faulty machine, as opposed to solving the immediate issue of having a box that works right now, I will have lost significantly more than $500.

This is why I buy Apple hardware with Apple Care, by the way. Whenever I've run into an issue I walk into an Apple Store or call customer service and have the issue resolved right away. Sure the up front cost is higher, but the time and money saved on not having to care is priceless.

It has to be said though, that the hardware is only half the story. I also make heavy use of spideroak and iCloud for backup of pretty much everything, as well as init scripts to get a brand new machine configured in less than an hour.

If these guys can provide the same solid hardware + support + cloud story (by themselves or through partners) then I'd say the price tag is competitive.

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#78

Post by signal11 »

Arnt wrote: post #46
s_kilk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing. It exists, it's the Thinkpad T-series. I don't get all this hand-wringing over the need for hypothetical great Linux machines when we have Thinkpads available right now.

Which T is closest to a Macbook Air 11"? There are many fine linux laptops in the desk-home type, 14"-17". The selection isn't so fine if you're looking for something that'll fit in your lap on the plane or train, and have 8G of RAM. Or at least 4.

I use a Thinkpad X230 - it has a 12.5" display with 8 or 16GB RAM. The latest model appears to be X270 -- same size display.

http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-x/Thi...

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#79

Post by stevehb »

francis-io wrote: post #48

I hope you guys have lots of success, we really need more options for linux on a laptop. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I really want a 13 inch laptop thats thin/ultrabook format, with low specs and only a HD screen. All I do each day is use a browser and SSH into other machines, I don't need an i5/i7 processor and HiDPI display to do that. My ideal laptop would be an XPS 13 sized laptop, with a 1080p screen,…

If you're looking for 13 inch, standard HD screen with long battery life, and all you need is browser and SSH functionality, you might think about trying a Chromebook. The SSH functionality comes as a Google-made extension [1]. The CPU and RAM specs are usually lower than you mention, but in my experience the machine runs fine for video calls, Netflix, etc.

[1]: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell/pnhec...

Re: System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house

#80

Post by jeremyjh »

Arnt wrote: post #46
s_kilk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A well designed linux laptop, with no driver issues, good build quality, that doesn't sacrifice performance for thinness? That's what I'm missing. It exists, it's the Thinkpad T-series. I don't get all this hand-wringing over the need for hypothetical great Linux machines when we have Thinkpads available right now.

Which T is closest to a Macbook Air 11"? There are many fine linux laptops in the desk-home type, 14"-17". The selection isn't so fine if you're looking for something that'll fit in your lap on the plane or train, and have 8G of RAM. Or at least 4.

X1 Carbon series works great with Linux. Its a little bigger than 11", but still very light and slim and a nice display. I use a Gen 1 (2012) with 8GB ram. Installed originally Ubuntu 12.04, upgraded to 14.04 and 16.04. All worked great. I presently run Arch on it which was also easy to install and works great.
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