9 ms·

System76 Galago Pro [video]

126 points by herman5 10y ago

mikecarlton 10y ago
Heads up -- auto-playing audio and video.
- eumoria 10y ago
  but it is a fun comic jab at apple. ::zooms in on ethernet port::
  - bobcallme 10y ago
    You mean the ethernet port that will break off and the power button that is not recessed so it does not power on in your bag. Great. Who puts a power button on the side of a laptop?
    - cknight 10y ago
      I have a GS63 from MSI which has the power button on the side. It can't be activated while the lid is closed, to prevent just that. Hopefully these guys have done the same thing...
    - eumoria 10y ago
      Yea... I have lenovo laptops that use a similar connector. In the short term they're all right but a failure on there makes the port useless.
    - dragonwriter 10y ago
      > Who puts a power button on the side of a laptop? Seems to be common on flip-style convertibles, because both tablet and tent configurations make keyboard-face access inconvenient.
  - oneeyedpigeon 10y ago
    Don't all 'ultrabooks' ship without an ethernet port nowadays?
    - soperj 10y ago
      No. Thinkpad X1 Carbon definitely has an ethernet port.
      - oneeyedpigeon 10y ago
        Are you sure? I don't see one http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2016/04/06/bac4d860-2c25-49b2-b9b3-b9d1e6b9be53/1245abb33f6015259e3167396d4e9379/tp-x1-4g-sides.jpg http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2016/04/06/bac4d860-2c25-...
      - gbrown_ 10y ago
        > No. Thinkpad X1 Carbon definitely has an ethernet port. Via an adapter...
        tedunangst 10y ago
        Worth mentioning though it's simply a port adapter. Not a USB device or whatever. So it works for things like PXE boot, etc., and has performance identical to regular onboard Ethernet. I've never been bothered by the adapter. It just sits there attached to the (thin) cable I always carry in my bag anyway.
      - jsight 10y ago
        You are being downvoted, but you are definitely right about the new ones. I'm not sure if they are shipping yet, though. Details here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/ http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca... Previous versions did not have one, afaik.
        JoshTriplett 10y ago
        The last several generations of the X1 Carbon have all had Ethernet ports; the adapters are even compatible between the generations.
  - eumoria 10y ago
    pile like attack dogs as if I am completely in support of the hardware! Just enjoying the poking fun at 'less for more money' apple... geez :P Also that stick-out power button is an AWFUL idea now that someone pointed it out.
dorfsmay 10y ago
No TrackPoint, which makes it unusable for me.
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  Also no serial RS232 port, no SCSI port, not even a floppy drive. /s
  - jethro_tell 10y ago
    To be fair, a track point has to go right in the middle of the keyboard to be of any value. A USB serial is functional as a dongle for the subset of people that need that. Same for floppy and scsi for that matter.
    - abeyer 10y ago
      Given that almost everyone has gone to chiclet keys with space between keycaps, I'm almost surprised that no one has tried to market a glue-on bluetooth track point for those who demand them.
  - dorfsmay 10y ago
    Although some people think of the trackpad as an evolution and the next, better, version of the trackpoint, this is not a universal opinion. This is really a matter of preference / workflow.
- reirob 10y ago
  Fully agree. I am looking now for more than ten years for an alternative to ThinkPads because of the Trackpoint. Tried many many options, always send them back (including the TinkPad x40 series, which removed the physical trackpoint buttons) - but so far I did not find and forced to pay premium money to ThinkPad. Have the T450s now for 1.5 years. Very very happy with. But if there would be something Linux friendly I with a perfect Trackpoint and keyboard and the "pro" options, I would give them my money. Imitating Apple will never attract me.
xophishox 10y ago
I can say from my experience dealing with system76, they are hands down one of my favorite machine producers, for both laptops and desktops. I am trying to get some server units ordered from them for an upcoming test deployment for a new architecture we are working on and hope I can get buy in from the company to support someone other than dell or hp.
- markbnj 10y ago
  They're a great group of people, I agree. Unfortunately the machines are not great, at least from my perspective as a Gazelle owner, and from what I have read from others who have purchased laptops from them. I've never used one of their server products so I can't comment on them. I want System76 to thrive but they need to build a better hardware product at the price point.
- 8draco8 10y ago
  If you don't want to deal with HP or Dell just go to smaller server re-seller like https://www.ixsystems.com https://www.ixsystems.com or buy Supermicro machine (which is basically what Dell is using) from someone like http://www.rackservers.com http://www.rackservers.com . Don't go with S76, they are just re branding machines, and not even high quality machines https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777649#13779002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777649#13779002
- AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
  For servers, I highly recommend Penguin Computing. My company is a customer of theirs, and very happy ones at that.
digikata 10y ago
Other than that power button on the side, that laptop looks pretty interesting as a Macbook air replacement. Here's hoping maybe it's not a power button, that it's a hard power shutoff for camera/mic peripherals.
- TenOhms 10y ago
  Yes, very silly place for a power button if you ask me. It will get pressed accidentally by virtually everyone who picks it up and moves it, or uses it, or bumps it into the side of something.
  - Freak_NL 10y ago
    You can configure the power button to do whatever you want it to do of course. I think the default behaviour in Ubuntu's Unity is to show the shutdown menu (shutdown, reboot, suspend, or hibernate), not simply suspend the laptop right there and then. Plenty of laptops have a power button on the side now. Lenovo's Yoga series does this too.
phaus 10y ago
Is this something new or is it another rebranded Clevo? The Galago Ultrapro they released a couple of years ago had amazing specs, but the keyboard had a design flaw they refused to fix properly. Some Clevos are OK, but many of them have design defects and/or poor QC.
- shmageggy 10y ago
  If we are talking about the same machine, where the keyboard would just not register key presses about 5% of the time, they did eventually ship out free replacement keyboards to all owners.
  - CalRobert 10y ago
    Which was surprising, since their support line tried their damnedest to convince me that I just didn't know how to type. I never took them seriously after that.
    - shmageggy 10y ago
      Yeah they tried to do the same to me (gaslighting, basically), and I already had a return shipping label in hand, but (un?)luckily they announced the replacements right around that same time.
      - CalRobert 10y ago
        I'd say you were lucky to rid yourself of a company that clearly prefers lying to their customers over testing their products before release.
  - phaus 10y ago
    When I was looking into them they were shipping out identical keyboards with a metal bar attached to it to make if feel less "cheap", but it supposedly didn't actually fix the problem. Did they actually end up redesigning the keyboard after that?
2bluesc 10y ago
As a previous gen System 76 Galago and now a proud Dell Precision 5510 owner, I wish them luck! I traded my previous gen System76 Galago Pro after 2-3 years of being disappointed with build quality, battery life also piss poor BIOS support for a company priding themselves on supporting the hardware (i.e. UEFI had to be hacked in from the identical Clevo, next to no options, no TPM, etc). We need more competitors in this area for the Linux fanbois (admittedly myself most of the time) who try to provide solutions to Macbook "refugees". The Dell XPS 15 / Precision 15 are amazing machines and for the first time in years I have a laptop I can recommend without reservation since the Thinkpads fall from grace (the Carbon was close but doesn't have a real processor processor last few times I checked, just the U series). I hope this new System76 Galago approaches the Dell level of quality and I welcome the competition. From what I've seen, they are aimed in the right direction. For those interested in more details on the laptop, here's an interview with a System76 person at SCaLE 15x by the Linux Action Show discussing the new Galago and hinting at more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbQoNz2GP8&t=21m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbQoNz2GP8&t=21m18s
- mediaserf 10y ago
  The deal-breaker on the Dell Precision 5510 for me was the keyboard layout. I work on the command line and I need the pipe key on the right side of the keyboard and directly above the shift key. I have a new Thinkpad P50 and I am happy with that.
  - thom 10y ago
    I'd be interested in people's views on these two product lines, as they're more or less what I'd settled on as a shortlist for my next machine.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - dijit 10y ago
    My precision 5520 has a pretty standard ANSI layout, idk what the ISO varients look like though.
symlinkk 10y ago
> 13" HiDPI display Hope it doesn't need fractional DPI scaling, because as far as I know there is no desktop on Linux that supports it, while Windows has supported it for years.
- jethro_tell 10y ago
  I thought gnome was able to do this alright in recent releases but I haven't used it for a while.
  - gurkendoktor 10y ago
    No, Gnome only supports integer scaling for UI (@1x, @2x, @3x). I don't know why they don't support fractional downscaling from @2x like Apple does. I guess nobody expected 13" 1080p laptops and 27" 4K screens seem to become mainstream :(
- dom0 10y ago
  "Fractional scaling" (I assume you mean e.g. 160 DPI instead of 200 DPI) is no problem even with the older KDE version from F23, just a bit finicky to get started up - but when it runs, it works. Gtk on the other hand seems (seemed? - I don't bother to check regularly) to be stuck at 100 %, 200 %, 300 %, ...
  - bwat49 10y ago
    With gnome 3 you can install gnome tweak tool and just set the text scaling to 120-130%. Works very well on my 13 inch 1080p display
    - symlinkk 10y ago
      That doesn't scale the UI. And it doesn't even scale the text for many third party apps like Sublime Text, Firefox, and IntelliJ. Windows handles this perfectly.
- trendia 10y ago
chrsm 10y ago
Over the past 4 years, I've bought two System76 machines (FD: work paid for them). Each time, I maxed out what I was able to get from them. Initially I had wanted to support a company that sells Linux-supported devices. My first machine - a Gazelle (laptop) - had numerous issues on arrival. It'd randomly crash. Keypresses would get stuck and repeat. It was annoying. After sending it in, I still had random issues until I installed Debian, presumably it was a kernel issue - but for it to be shipped like that..was just bizarre. My newest machine, I purchased a Leopard (desktop). It had been a few years, and I figured perhaps they'd gotten better at things. I was wrong. They shipped this machine, knowing full well how long it takes to boot - again, due to some kind of kernel issue - it took over 2 minutes to go from cold boot -> login screen, USB devices would randomly not work, just weird stuff.. I put in a ticket, but nothing ever came of it. I didn't want to send this machine back like I had sent my laptop (TWICE), so I ended up switching OSes again, using an updated kernel, and things seem fine. I get that they don't really have control over the kernel that comes with the OS they ship. I'm not naive. It's just a bit silly that they'd be comfortable shipping a new machine with those kinds of issues to the point where the machine is either unusable or stuff randomly stops working. As far as the "physical quality" of the machines go, I'm still happy with both of them. They are well-put-together machines, IMO. However, I know that my next machine is NOT going to be from System76. It's significantly cheaper to just get a nice Dell or something.
- jaredandrews 10y ago
  I bought a System 76 desktop a couple years ago. I had extra $$ and like you, I wanted to support a company selling Linux devices. Previously, I had used Ubuntu on multiple laptops that did not have "hand picked" hardware. I was used to having to fix things randomly after updates and just running into hardware issues from time to time. I assumed that the selling point of System 76 was that because they chose the hardware with Linux in mind these things wouldn't happen. Maybe it's a QA thing but I found that I was running into just as many issues on my Sys76 machine as my old laptop. Manageable, but really puts the value prop into question. It became difficult to justify the purchase over building my own PC or buying a pre-built machine from someone else.
  - 10y ago
bachmeier 10y ago
I've considered buying a System 76 laptop for years, but it's really hard to find satisfied customers. I'd be concerned if the reviews were largely positive but included a few from people with bad experiences - I don't want to be one of the unlucky few. That's not the case at all. There's almost unanimous agreement that these are poor quality machines.
- AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
  I am a satisfied customer of System76. I own a Lemur laptop which I basically maxed out. I've had it since December, and am very pleased with the build quality, the keyboard, and the battery life. My suspicion is that a lot of people don't know how to configure a Linux OS for optimal laptop use. I imagine that even if one were to keep the Ubuntu installation that comes with the unit there are many further optimizations that can be performed to improve battery life.
  - cwyers 10y ago
    Why on Earth would you want to buy a laptop from a specialty Linux laptop vendor (at more expense for the same specs than a standard Windows OEM laptop) if you just need to optimize the installed Linux to get good battery life? Isn't that supposed to be the value-add of buying from a vendor that specializes in Linux laptops?
- imperialWicket 10y ago
  I've got a 5 year old Leopard and a 1.5 year old Wild Dog that are perfectly satisfactory. I have a month old Oryx, and my sentiment follows the general comments - I'd probably spend just a little more to go Dell/Lenovo for the next laptop. The rebranded Clevo machines just aren't the same build quality and on a laptop (for many users) that's a meaningful issue.
- bytecodes 10y ago
  I used a System76 Gazelle for work and getting a master's degree in CS. Wonderful machine for those purposes. Ubuntu on a laptop, with actual supported drivers, made working in python, java, and scala quick and easy (apt is still better than brew) and it was portable. I've been tempted to buy another since Apple seems stuck at 16GB. However, the webcam did stop working after 1 year.
dudul 10y ago
I bought a Lemur 4 or 5 years ago and it served me very well. It still works and is somewhere in a drawer in case I need a Linux. The only thing I did on it was replace the battery after 3 years. However, while I really really want to support a company that does Linux first, I think my next machine will probably be a Dell XPS. The quality of my System76 is not top notch, feels very cheap and a little bulky.
headcanon 10y ago
Has System76 improved their product quality? I understand their reputation has never been any good. If they're able to pull it together I might consider one, but coming from mac land, its going to be a tough sell, and I'm pretty sure I would just get a lenovo if I wanted to move away from macbook pros.
danielmain 10y ago
Please with more than 16gb ram! My Macbook PRO 2012 had 16gb
- cassidyjames 10y ago
  System76 employee here! Up to 32 GB. ;)
johnhattan 10y ago
Am I missing something with these machines? I just priced generic Acer and Asus laptops with the same specs to the Lemur, and they both came out $200 cheaper. Mind you, they come with Windows pre-installed, but the Ubuntu installer will happily reformat the drive before installing itself. And they're all just generic laptop hardware (HID trackpad, Intel graphics), so I doubt that drivers are an issue.
- 0x6c6f6c 10y ago
  Larger quantity of sales allows the profit margin to be smaller.
stamps 10y ago
Had a Lemur 14" about 5 years ago. Out of the box - Ubuntu support was very good but the battery life was poor (sort of expected at the time), build quality okay but not comparable to the 2012 Macbook Pro's, and the speakers were notably quiet. Otherwise it's still running (plugged in) with an older relative who uses it to check email and do other simple web tasks. If they've gotten the build quality right this time I'll give it a shot. I'm currently using a Dell XPS 13 (2015) running Elementary OS (used to be Arch).
rdeckard0104 10y ago
Awful marketing for what is likely to be a continuity of sub-par products.
gamache 10y ago
There's basically no detail to the video, so I'll just join the chorus of disappointed former customers here. I had a System76 netbook ~6 years ago, and it is truly one of the worst pieces of hardware I ever encountered (and I had a PowerBook 5300c). Sure, Linux ran on it, but the keys were awful, the build was flimsy, the trackpad was atrocious, and the battery was at once underwhelming AND protrusive. Nothing to recommend them by.
znpy 10y ago
what is 'pro' about that? On a ThinkPad I could, depending on the model: - have multiple disks in my laptop - have multiple batteries - hostwap cdrom drives with a hard drive or a battery - hostwap batteries - have 4 ram sticks (W series) - install coreboot/libreboot - have nvidia quadro card - have multi-core xeon processor - have on site, next business day support (parts and labour) - have fingerprint reader - have hdaps - have trackpoint+ultranav - have on-board prng So... What can this thing do, instead ??
devnull42 10y ago
I ordered a System76 laptop about 4 years ago for work as my day to day machine. Almost immediately the HDMI port broke and I was pretty bummed out. I emailed their support hoping to get it repaired but they never actually fixed it. Since then I have never gone back to them. I want them to be great so badly but that just hasn’t been my experience.
nkkollaw 10y ago
This is probably the worst product video I have ever seen. They have to do a lot better than this at this time and age...
kentt 10y ago
I'll join in and say the Galago was one of the worst computers I've had.
csdreamer7 10y ago
HP Laptop 2010: AMD built-in graphics card overheated and AMD cut support for it while still selling it. Dell Laptop 2011: USB shorted out, power cord was too short. Nvidia Optimius was terrible with both Linux and Windows. Lemur 2012, box-like, RAM was expensive, but it was a work horse. Hardware keys, very small laptop to mirror an old XP laptop I loved. Kept working even after I dropped it on it's power plug. Made good use of System76's lifetime support. Lemur 2016, smooth, thinner, no cd-rom drive, very bright LED to the right, runs much cooler. The equivalent laptops from HP and Dell are thinner, but I do not feel like risking $1.5k on a laptop that could be a dud. The plastic casing does feel cheap and a little twistable, but so did the Dell. I can not have a metal casing for my work.
- robotbikes 10y ago
  I had a similar problem with a HP laptop that was a nightmare to run under Linux and almost as bad with Windows. It had a AMD chipset though and Linux wouldn't run it without blasting the CPU/GPU fan full blast. After countless hours trying to get a working machine when it came time to get a new laptop I thought I'd try System76. I bought a less than year old Galago Pro laptop on eBay and immediately noticed it had some issues like a weird buzz and random hard drive disconnects. I contacted support and eventually RMAd it. They replaced the motherboard and it was covered by the support warranty. They never asked if I was the original owner. This was my first experience ever getting support a on a device and I can't complain. I'm using it to this day, while not a dream machine it works in Linux without tinkering and support was there when I needed it. It is definitely the best laptop I have ever owned but I have almost always had second-hand year old models. The i7 processor and haswell GPU and 16gb of memory and replaceable components, even the battery still has a few hours of life when I need it. The HP laptop on the other hand is still being used for games by my step-son but he has a desk fan leaning on it to avoid over heating.
bedros 10y ago
got Dell XPS 15" (9550) last summer, and I just upgraded from windows 10 to Kubuntu 17.04 Beta, supper happy, and everything works perfect. wifi, sleep/wakeup, power management work right away if you get 4K screen, you need to go settings and change font size from 96dpi to 208 dpi
vladimir-y 10y ago
Better get ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen5 (latest generation, recently released). Carbon has 14" screen with a similar or even smaller size (frameless design) than that bulky 13" System76. It also has 2 Thunderbolt3 ports, I doubt System76 will have added at least one. Carbon also has a best keyboard on the market.

126 points by herman5 10y ago

mikecarlton 10y ago

Heads up -- auto-playing audio and video.

eumoria 10y ago
but it is a fun comic jab at apple. ::zooms in on ethernet port::
- bobcallme 10y ago
  You mean the ethernet port that will break off and the power button that is not recessed so it does not power on in your bag. Great. Who puts a power button on the side of a laptop?
  - cknight 10y ago
    I have a GS63 from MSI which has the power button on the side. It can't be activated while the lid is closed, to prevent just that. Hopefully these guys have done the same thing...
  - eumoria 10y ago
    Yea... I have lenovo laptops that use a similar connector. In the short term they're all right but a failure on there makes the port useless.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > Who puts a power button on the side of a laptop? Seems to be common on flip-style convertibles, because both tablet and tent configurations make keyboard-face access inconvenient.
- oneeyedpigeon 10y ago
  Don't all 'ultrabooks' ship without an ethernet port nowadays?
  - soperj 10y ago
    No. Thinkpad X1 Carbon definitely has an ethernet port.
    - oneeyedpigeon 10y ago
      Are you sure? I don't see one http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2016/04/06/bac4d860-2c25-49b2-b9b3-b9d1e6b9be53/1245abb33f6015259e3167396d4e9379/tp-x1-4g-sides.jpg http://zdnet1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2016/04/06/bac4d860-2c25-...
    - gbrown_ 10y ago
      > No. Thinkpad X1 Carbon definitely has an ethernet port. Via an adapter...
      - tedunangst 10y ago
        Worth mentioning though it's simply a port adapter. Not a USB device or whatever. So it works for things like PXE boot, etc., and has performance identical to regular onboard Ethernet. I've never been bothered by the adapter. It just sits there attached to the (thin) cable I always carry in my bag anyway.
    - jsight 10y ago
      You are being downvoted, but you are definitely right about the new ones. I'm not sure if they are shipping yet, though. Details here: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/ http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca... Previous versions did not have one, afaik.
      - JoshTriplett 10y ago
        The last several generations of the X1 Carbon have all had Ethernet ports; the adapters are even compatible between the generations.
- eumoria 10y ago
  pile like attack dogs as if I am completely in support of the hardware! Just enjoying the poking fun at 'less for more money' apple... geez :P Also that stick-out power button is an AWFUL idea now that someone pointed it out.

dorfsmay 10y ago

No TrackPoint, which makes it unusable for me.

Freak_NL 10y ago
Also no serial RS232 port, no SCSI port, not even a floppy drive. /s
- jethro_tell 10y ago
  To be fair, a track point has to go right in the middle of the keyboard to be of any value. A USB serial is functional as a dongle for the subset of people that need that. Same for floppy and scsi for that matter.
  - abeyer 10y ago
    Given that almost everyone has gone to chiclet keys with space between keycaps, I'm almost surprised that no one has tried to market a glue-on bluetooth track point for those who demand them.
- dorfsmay 10y ago
  Although some people think of the trackpad as an evolution and the next, better, version of the trackpoint, this is not a universal opinion. This is really a matter of preference / workflow.
reirob 10y ago
Fully agree. I am looking now for more than ten years for an alternative to ThinkPads because of the Trackpoint. Tried many many options, always send them back (including the TinkPad x40 series, which removed the physical trackpoint buttons) - but so far I did not find and forced to pay premium money to ThinkPad. Have the T450s now for 1.5 years. Very very happy with. But if there would be something Linux friendly I with a perfect Trackpoint and keyboard and the "pro" options, I would give them my money. Imitating Apple will never attract me.

xophishox 10y ago

I can say from my experience dealing with system76, they are hands down one of my favorite machine producers, for both laptops and desktops. I am trying to get some server units ordered from them for an upcoming test deployment for a new architecture we are working on and hope I can get buy in from the company to support someone other than dell or hp.

markbnj 10y ago
They're a great group of people, I agree. Unfortunately the machines are not great, at least from my perspective as a Gazelle owner, and from what I have read from others who have purchased laptops from them. I've never used one of their server products so I can't comment on them. I want System76 to thrive but they need to build a better hardware product at the price point.
8draco8 10y ago
If you don't want to deal with HP or Dell just go to smaller server re-seller like https://www.ixsystems.com https://www.ixsystems.com or buy Supermicro machine (which is basically what Dell is using) from someone like http://www.rackservers.com http://www.rackservers.com . Don't go with S76, they are just re branding machines, and not even high quality machines https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777649#13779002 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13777649#13779002
AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
For servers, I highly recommend Penguin Computing. My company is a customer of theirs, and very happy ones at that.

digikata 10y ago

Other than that power button on the side, that laptop looks pretty interesting as a Macbook air replacement. Here's hoping maybe it's not a power button, that it's a hard power shutoff for camera/mic peripherals.

TenOhms 10y ago
Yes, very silly place for a power button if you ask me. It will get pressed accidentally by virtually everyone who picks it up and moves it, or uses it, or bumps it into the side of something.
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  You can configure the power button to do whatever you want it to do of course. I think the default behaviour in Ubuntu's Unity is to show the shutdown menu (shutdown, reboot, suspend, or hibernate), not simply suspend the laptop right there and then. Plenty of laptops have a power button on the side now. Lenovo's Yoga series does this too.

phaus 10y ago

Is this something new or is it another rebranded Clevo? The Galago Ultrapro they released a couple of years ago had amazing specs, but the keyboard had a design flaw they refused to fix properly. Some Clevos are OK, but many of them have design defects and/or poor QC.

shmageggy 10y ago
If we are talking about the same machine, where the keyboard would just not register key presses about 5% of the time, they did eventually ship out free replacement keyboards to all owners.
- CalRobert 10y ago
  Which was surprising, since their support line tried their damnedest to convince me that I just didn't know how to type. I never took them seriously after that.
  - shmageggy 10y ago
    Yeah they tried to do the same to me (gaslighting, basically), and I already had a return shipping label in hand, but (un?)luckily they announced the replacements right around that same time.
    - CalRobert 10y ago
      I'd say you were lucky to rid yourself of a company that clearly prefers lying to their customers over testing their products before release.
- phaus 10y ago
  When I was looking into them they were shipping out identical keyboards with a metal bar attached to it to make if feel less "cheap", but it supposedly didn't actually fix the problem. Did they actually end up redesigning the keyboard after that?

2bluesc 10y ago

As a previous gen System 76 Galago and now a proud Dell Precision 5510 owner, I wish them luck! I traded my previous gen System76 Galago Pro after 2-3 years of being disappointed with build quality, battery life also piss poor BIOS support for a company priding themselves on supporting the hardware (i.e. UEFI had to be hacked in from the identical Clevo, next to no options, no TPM, etc). We need more competitors in this area for the Linux fanbois (admittedly myself most of the time) who try to provide solutions to Macbook "refugees". The Dell XPS 15 / Precision 15 are amazing machines and for the first time in years I have a laptop I can recommend without reservation since the Thinkpads fall from grace (the Carbon was close but doesn't have a real processor processor last few times I checked, just the U series). I hope this new System76 Galago approaches the Dell level of quality and I welcome the competition. From what I've seen, they are aimed in the right direction. For those interested in more details on the laptop, here's an interview with a System76 person at SCaLE 15x by the Linux Action Show discussing the new Galago and hinting at more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbQoNz2GP8&t=21m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbQoNz2GP8&t=21m18s

mediaserf 10y ago
The deal-breaker on the Dell Precision 5510 for me was the keyboard layout. I work on the command line and I need the pipe key on the right side of the keyboard and directly above the shift key. I have a new Thinkpad P50 and I am happy with that.
- thom 10y ago
  I'd be interested in people's views on these two product lines, as they're more or less what I'd settled on as a shortlist for my next machine.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- dijit 10y ago
  My precision 5520 has a pretty standard ANSI layout, idk what the ISO varients look like though.

symlinkk 10y ago

> 13" HiDPI display Hope it doesn't need fractional DPI scaling, because as far as I know there is no desktop on Linux that supports it, while Windows has supported it for years.

jethro_tell 10y ago
I thought gnome was able to do this alright in recent releases but I haven't used it for a while.
- gurkendoktor 10y ago
  No, Gnome only supports integer scaling for UI (@1x, @2x, @3x). I don't know why they don't support fractional downscaling from @2x like Apple does. I guess nobody expected 13" 1080p laptops and 27" 4K screens seem to become mainstream :(
dom0 10y ago
"Fractional scaling" (I assume you mean e.g. 160 DPI instead of 200 DPI) is no problem even with the older KDE version from F23, just a bit finicky to get started up - but when it runs, it works. Gtk on the other hand seems (seemed? - I don't bother to check regularly) to be stuck at 100 %, 200 %, 300 %, ...
- bwat49 10y ago
  With gnome 3 you can install gnome tweak tool and just set the text scaling to 120-130%. Works very well on my 13 inch 1080p display
  - symlinkk 10y ago
    That doesn't scale the UI. And it doesn't even scale the text for many third party apps like Sublime Text, Firefox, and IntelliJ. Windows handles this perfectly.
trendia 10y ago

chrsm 10y ago

Over the past 4 years, I've bought two System76 machines (FD: work paid for them). Each time, I maxed out what I was able to get from them. Initially I had wanted to support a company that sells Linux-supported devices. My first machine - a Gazelle (laptop) - had numerous issues on arrival. It'd randomly crash. Keypresses would get stuck and repeat. It was annoying. After sending it in, I still had random issues until I installed Debian, presumably it was a kernel issue - but for it to be shipped like that..was just bizarre. My newest machine, I purchased a Leopard (desktop). It had been a few years, and I figured perhaps they'd gotten better at things. I was wrong. They shipped this machine, knowing full well how long it takes to boot - again, due to some kind of kernel issue - it took over 2 minutes to go from cold boot -> login screen, USB devices would randomly not work, just weird stuff.. I put in a ticket, but nothing ever came of it. I didn't want to send this machine back like I had sent my laptop (TWICE), so I ended up switching OSes again, using an updated kernel, and things seem fine. I get that they don't really have control over the kernel that comes with the OS they ship. I'm not naive. It's just a bit silly that they'd be comfortable shipping a new machine with those kinds of issues to the point where the machine is either unusable or stuff randomly stops working. As far as the "physical quality" of the machines go, I'm still happy with both of them. They are well-put-together machines, IMO. However, I know that my next machine is NOT going to be from System76. It's significantly cheaper to just get a nice Dell or something.

jaredandrews 10y ago
I bought a System 76 desktop a couple years ago. I had extra $$ and like you, I wanted to support a company selling Linux devices. Previously, I had used Ubuntu on multiple laptops that did not have "hand picked" hardware. I was used to having to fix things randomly after updates and just running into hardware issues from time to time. I assumed that the selling point of System 76 was that because they chose the hardware with Linux in mind these things wouldn't happen. Maybe it's a QA thing but I found that I was running into just as many issues on my Sys76 machine as my old laptop. Manageable, but really puts the value prop into question. It became difficult to justify the purchase over building my own PC or buying a pre-built machine from someone else.
- 10y ago

bachmeier 10y ago

I've considered buying a System 76 laptop for years, but it's really hard to find satisfied customers. I'd be concerned if the reviews were largely positive but included a few from people with bad experiences - I don't want to be one of the unlucky few. That's not the case at all. There's almost unanimous agreement that these are poor quality machines.

AndrewUnmuted 10y ago
I am a satisfied customer of System76. I own a Lemur laptop which I basically maxed out. I've had it since December, and am very pleased with the build quality, the keyboard, and the battery life. My suspicion is that a lot of people don't know how to configure a Linux OS for optimal laptop use. I imagine that even if one were to keep the Ubuntu installation that comes with the unit there are many further optimizations that can be performed to improve battery life.
- cwyers 10y ago
  Why on Earth would you want to buy a laptop from a specialty Linux laptop vendor (at more expense for the same specs than a standard Windows OEM laptop) if you just need to optimize the installed Linux to get good battery life? Isn't that supposed to be the value-add of buying from a vendor that specializes in Linux laptops?
imperialWicket 10y ago
I've got a 5 year old Leopard and a 1.5 year old Wild Dog that are perfectly satisfactory. I have a month old Oryx, and my sentiment follows the general comments - I'd probably spend just a little more to go Dell/Lenovo for the next laptop. The rebranded Clevo machines just aren't the same build quality and on a laptop (for many users) that's a meaningful issue.
bytecodes 10y ago
I used a System76 Gazelle for work and getting a master's degree in CS. Wonderful machine for those purposes. Ubuntu on a laptop, with actual supported drivers, made working in python, java, and scala quick and easy (apt is still better than brew) and it was portable. I've been tempted to buy another since Apple seems stuck at 16GB. However, the webcam did stop working after 1 year.

dudul 10y ago

I bought a Lemur 4 or 5 years ago and it served me very well. It still works and is somewhere in a drawer in case I need a Linux. The only thing I did on it was replace the battery after 3 years. However, while I really really want to support a company that does Linux first, I think my next machine will probably be a Dell XPS. The quality of my System76 is not top notch, feels very cheap and a little bulky.

headcanon 10y ago

Has System76 improved their product quality? I understand their reputation has never been any good. If they're able to pull it together I might consider one, but coming from mac land, its going to be a tough sell, and I'm pretty sure I would just get a lenovo if I wanted to move away from macbook pros.

danielmain 10y ago

Please with more than 16gb ram! My Macbook PRO 2012 had 16gb

cassidyjames 10y ago
System76 employee here! Up to 32 GB. ;)

johnhattan 10y ago

Am I missing something with these machines? I just priced generic Acer and Asus laptops with the same specs to the Lemur, and they both came out $200 cheaper. Mind you, they come with Windows pre-installed, but the Ubuntu installer will happily reformat the drive before installing itself. And they're all just generic laptop hardware (HID trackpad, Intel graphics), so I doubt that drivers are an issue.

0x6c6f6c 10y ago
Larger quantity of sales allows the profit margin to be smaller.

stamps 10y ago

Had a Lemur 14" about 5 years ago. Out of the box - Ubuntu support was very good but the battery life was poor (sort of expected at the time), build quality okay but not comparable to the 2012 Macbook Pro's, and the speakers were notably quiet. Otherwise it's still running (plugged in) with an older relative who uses it to check email and do other simple web tasks. If they've gotten the build quality right this time I'll give it a shot. I'm currently using a Dell XPS 13 (2015) running Elementary OS (used to be Arch).

rdeckard0104 10y ago

Awful marketing for what is likely to be a continuity of sub-par products.

gamache 10y ago

There's basically no detail to the video, so I'll just join the chorus of disappointed former customers here. I had a System76 netbook ~6 years ago, and it is truly one of the worst pieces of hardware I ever encountered (and I had a PowerBook 5300c). Sure, Linux ran on it, but the keys were awful, the build was flimsy, the trackpad was atrocious, and the battery was at once underwhelming AND protrusive. Nothing to recommend them by.

znpy 10y ago

what is 'pro' about that? On a ThinkPad I could, depending on the model: - have multiple disks in my laptop - have multiple batteries - hostwap cdrom drives with a hard drive or a battery - hostwap batteries - have 4 ram sticks (W series) - install coreboot/libreboot - have nvidia quadro card - have multi-core xeon processor - have on site, next business day support (parts and labour) - have fingerprint reader - have hdaps - have trackpoint+ultranav - have on-board prng So... What can this thing do, instead ??

devnull42 10y ago

I ordered a System76 laptop about 4 years ago for work as my day to day machine. Almost immediately the HDMI port broke and I was pretty bummed out. I emailed their support hoping to get it repaired but they never actually fixed it. Since then I have never gone back to them. I want them to be great so badly but that just hasn’t been my experience.

nkkollaw 10y ago

This is probably the worst product video I have ever seen. They have to do a lot better than this at this time and age...

kentt 10y ago

I'll join in and say the Galago was one of the worst computers I've had.

csdreamer7 10y ago

HP Laptop 2010: AMD built-in graphics card overheated and AMD cut support for it while still selling it. Dell Laptop 2011: USB shorted out, power cord was too short. Nvidia Optimius was terrible with both Linux and Windows. Lemur 2012, box-like, RAM was expensive, but it was a work horse. Hardware keys, very small laptop to mirror an old XP laptop I loved. Kept working even after I dropped it on it's power plug. Made good use of System76's lifetime support. Lemur 2016, smooth, thinner, no cd-rom drive, very bright LED to the right, runs much cooler. The equivalent laptops from HP and Dell are thinner, but I do not feel like risking $1.5k on a laptop that could be a dud. The plastic casing does feel cheap and a little twistable, but so did the Dell. I can not have a metal casing for my work.

robotbikes 10y ago
I had a similar problem with a HP laptop that was a nightmare to run under Linux and almost as bad with Windows. It had a AMD chipset though and Linux wouldn't run it without blasting the CPU/GPU fan full blast. After countless hours trying to get a working machine when it came time to get a new laptop I thought I'd try System76. I bought a less than year old Galago Pro laptop on eBay and immediately noticed it had some issues like a weird buzz and random hard drive disconnects. I contacted support and eventually RMAd it. They replaced the motherboard and it was covered by the support warranty. They never asked if I was the original owner. This was my first experience ever getting support a on a device and I can't complain. I'm using it to this day, while not a dream machine it works in Linux without tinkering and support was there when I needed it. It is definitely the best laptop I have ever owned but I have almost always had second-hand year old models. The i7 processor and haswell GPU and 16gb of memory and replaceable components, even the battery still has a few hours of life when I need it. The HP laptop on the other hand is still being used for games by my step-son but he has a desk fan leaning on it to avoid over heating.

bedros 10y ago

got Dell XPS 15" (9550) last summer, and I just upgraded from windows 10 to Kubuntu 17.04 Beta, supper happy, and everything works perfect. wifi, sleep/wakeup, power management work right away if you get 4K screen, you need to go settings and change font size from 96dpi to 208 dpi

vladimir-y 10y ago

Better get ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen5 (latest generation, recently released). Carbon has 14" screen with a similar or even smaller size (frameless design) than that bulky 13" System76. It also has 2 Thunderbolt3 ports, I doubt System76 will have added at least one. Carbon also has a best keyboard on the market.