4 ms·

To be honest these are premium prices: https://system76.com/laptops https://system76.com/laptops

organsnyder 8y ago
Those are prices I'm comfortable paying for a ThinkPad, XPS, or Macbook. And all of them run a Unix variant (Linux or MacOS) very well. System76 needs to be offering similar levels of build quality and support for those systems to be worthwhile.
- tedivm 8y ago
  They are not offering the same level of build quality. Not by a long shot. At my last company we started with System76 for both desktops and laptops, but ended up switching to Dell for laptops and Exxact for desktops. The System76 machines are also just Clevo laptops that are rebranded and sold. You're literally paying a "premium" for them to install a working version of linux and offer support on top.
  - organsnyder 8y ago
    Yeah, that's what I've heard. I don't have firsthand experience with their laptops, but I have no reason to expect (and many reasons to doubt, based on reports here) that they match up to the others in their price class.
Xeboc 8y ago
System76 tech support here. An important part of comparing prices between two products is to make sure to make apples to apples comparisons. Our pricing includes a couple of value-adds that our competitor's do not. First, all of our computers come with lifetime technical support. Me and my team are readily accessible both via the phone and our support system, for as long as you own the product. We not only support the Ubuntu and Pop! operating systems, and all of their software components, but we also help with printers, installed software, hardware issues, network configuration, and everything that comes our way. Few competitors will teach and educate and help in the ways that we do. Next, all of our products also support our engineering efforts in the Linux community. Many desktop bugs and issues that we discover and fix affect every Linux user. For instance, NVMe drives had been around for a few years, but it was our engineer that found the GRUB install bug that prevented automatic installation on those drives due to a regex error with handing /dev/sda vs. /dev/nvme0n1. That fix was incorporated in Debian, Red Hat, and every other version of Linux that used the GRUB bootloader. The work we put into our operating system benefits all users in many cases. Buying our products means that when we discover bugs in the operating system, we can get them addressed quickly and effectively without waiting to deliver patches.

Those are prices I'm comfortable paying for a ThinkPad, XPS, or Macbook. And all of them run a Unix variant (Linux or MacOS) very well. System76 needs to be offering similar levels of build quality and support for those systems to be worthwhile.

tedivm 8y ago
They are not offering the same level of build quality. Not by a long shot. At my last company we started with System76 for both desktops and laptops, but ended up switching to Dell for laptops and Exxact for desktops. The System76 machines are also just Clevo laptops that are rebranded and sold. You're literally paying a "premium" for them to install a working version of linux and offer support on top.
- organsnyder 8y ago
  Yeah, that's what I've heard. I don't have firsthand experience with their laptops, but I have no reason to expect (and many reasons to doubt, based on reports here) that they match up to the others in their price class.

Xeboc 8y ago

System76 tech support here. An important part of comparing prices between two products is to make sure to make apples to apples comparisons. Our pricing includes a couple of value-adds that our competitor's do not. First, all of our computers come with lifetime technical support. Me and my team are readily accessible both via the phone and our support system, for as long as you own the product. We not only support the Ubuntu and Pop! operating systems, and all of their software components, but we also help with printers, installed software, hardware issues, network configuration, and everything that comes our way. Few competitors will teach and educate and help in the ways that we do. Next, all of our products also support our engineering efforts in the Linux community. Many desktop bugs and issues that we discover and fix affect every Linux user. For instance, NVMe drives had been around for a few years, but it was our engineer that found the GRUB install bug that prevented automatic installation on those drives due to a regex error with handing /dev/sda vs. /dev/nvme0n1. That fix was incorporated in Debian, Red Hat, and every other version of Linux that used the GRUB bootloader. The work we put into our operating system benefits all users in many cases. Buying our products means that when we discover bugs in the operating system, we can get them addressed quickly and effectively without waiting to deliver patches.