4 ms·

I don't understand the appeal for System76. It seems grossly overpriced. Is it simply because they install Linux for you? You can find the same processor with m

I don't understand the appeal for System76. It seems grossly overpriced. Is it simply because they install Linux for you? You can find the same processor with much better specs for cheaper on Amazon or Costco.

bluGill 6y ago
With system 76 you get not just the processor, but also the other parts. You know System 76 didn't change network interfaces to something new with no linux drivers mid stream. Or Wifi, USB chipset, some BIOS, or one of the many other non-processor parts that manufacture change all the time. If there are drivers the substitution doesn't matter to anyone, but often there are no linux drivers for 3-6 months (best case - meaning that it isn't hard to write the driver, in the worst case linux will never get a driver). Note that for the above substitutions there often is no part number change so you have no way of knowing if the amazon/costco model will work even if it works for someone else.
- encryptluks2 6y ago
  Costco list the model and the manufacturer provides all the information about the chips on their website. If you're running a distro with a 2 year old kernel then you may have issues, but I run Arch so it works flawless. I just got a Ryzen 4600 on Costco for $429 and everything works great.
  - officeplant 6y ago
    Not everyone runs Arch or a distro with anywhere near the newest kernel. Not everyone feels like digging for posts online that show what wifi/ethernet/etc chipset a laptop is using so they know beforehand whether or not its going to be a pain in a more LTS minded distro. System76 is there for those people.
- mcguire 6y ago
  Pro-tip from an ex-university sysadmin: beware getting consumer-grade machines, and never, ever, get them if you are buying in bulk. The specs will probably all be similar, but the individual parts will be whatever was in the bin when the chassis came down the line, which means whatever was cheapest that day. Even if you get lucky and have drivers for everything, supporting 10 machines with 10 different configurations is 10 times harder than supporting hundreds of machines with one configuration.
pnathan 6y ago
It is all set up and chosen to work out of the box. I have a limited number of hours in my life, and figuring out the right combination of hardware to run a Linux box correctly is not something I'm going to bother spending them on.
danbolt 6y ago
I certainly paid a bit extra for my Thelio, but it's incredibly cute on my desk (in a NeXTcube kind of way) and I didn't have to worry about finding the right permutation of parts to get everything up and running. I'm sure I likely could have purchased and assembled the components myself and found a more spartan case and all that, but it felt a bit like Christmas using it for the first while.

bluGill 6y ago

With system 76 you get not just the processor, but also the other parts. You know System 76 didn't change network interfaces to something new with no linux drivers mid stream. Or Wifi, USB chipset, some BIOS, or one of the many other non-processor parts that manufacture change all the time. If there are drivers the substitution doesn't matter to anyone, but often there are no linux drivers for 3-6 months (best case - meaning that it isn't hard to write the driver, in the worst case linux will never get a driver). Note that for the above substitutions there often is no part number change so you have no way of knowing if the amazon/costco model will work even if it works for someone else.

encryptluks2 6y ago
Costco list the model and the manufacturer provides all the information about the chips on their website. If you're running a distro with a 2 year old kernel then you may have issues, but I run Arch so it works flawless. I just got a Ryzen 4600 on Costco for $429 and everything works great.
- officeplant 6y ago
  Not everyone runs Arch or a distro with anywhere near the newest kernel. Not everyone feels like digging for posts online that show what wifi/ethernet/etc chipset a laptop is using so they know beforehand whether or not its going to be a pain in a more LTS minded distro. System76 is there for those people.
mcguire 6y ago
Pro-tip from an ex-university sysadmin: beware getting consumer-grade machines, and never, ever, get them if you are buying in bulk. The specs will probably all be similar, but the individual parts will be whatever was in the bin when the chassis came down the line, which means whatever was cheapest that day. Even if you get lucky and have drivers for everything, supporting 10 machines with 10 different configurations is 10 times harder than supporting hundreds of machines with one configuration.

pnathan 6y ago

It is all set up and chosen to work out of the box. I have a limited number of hours in my life, and figuring out the right combination of hardware to run a Linux box correctly is not something I'm going to bother spending them on.

danbolt 6y ago

I certainly paid a bit extra for my Thelio, but it's incredibly cute on my desk (in a NeXTcube kind of way) and I didn't have to worry about finding the right permutation of parts to get everything up and running. I'm sure I likely could have purchased and assembled the components myself and found a more spartan case and all that, but it felt a bit like Christmas using it for the first while.