Comment by cwyers | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cwyers | Hacker News Reader

> Today, we can’t design and manufacture our products. We outsource this work. It’s similar to how Tesla used a Lotus chassis for their first car. (Like their Roadster, the outside of our computers might look similar to others but it’s the inside that counts.) The strategy was cash efficient and allowed us to focus on developing high value areas of the company. However, knowing what we wanted to build but without the means to do so left us constantly yearning for more.

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> Phase three moves product design and manufacturing in house. We’re about to build the Model S of computers. Something so brilliant and beautiful that reviewers will have to add an 11 to their scores. Being that we’re System76 and we do things the System76 way, our design principles are polar opposite of the rest of the industry.

Is this serious? The Tesla Model S was a serious gamechangers for the viability of electric cars. Dell and Lenovo have made "OEM computers with Linux support" a solved problem space. These guys think they're going to leap from selling rebadged Taiwanese MacBook clones to coming up with original PC designs so great that they beat what Apple and its mountains of cash can put out? Are they serious?

There were plenty of electric cars before the Model S. You might say that "electric cars" was a solved problem space. Around that time, Tesla was "selling rebadged European sports cars" in low quantities as a proof of concept. Of course there's no way they could beat GM and what their mountains of cash could put out. But Tesla steadily built out their Model S production, and rapidly became the poster child for the viability of electric cars. They have been extremely successful since.

I think it's entirely possible that a similar situation can happen in the PC space, and System76 believe they're positioned to do it.

Disclaimer, I do happen to be a web developer at System76. But the argument stands; you can disagree that System76 has the ability to execute on this vision, but after building a very successful business around Linux computers for 11 years, I happen to believe it's going to happen.

There were electric cars before the Model S. None of them were especially commercially viable. The Tesla has the potential to be something like the iPod or the iPhone, in terms of transforming a product category. Yes, there were MP3 players and Blackberries and PalmPilots, but they didn't deliver the same level of experience as what came after. I don't believe that there are similar opportunities in the PC desktop and laptop markets, which are contracting, commoditized markets.

hey, make it happen, and I'll buy it.

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