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Comment by tenken | Hacker News Reader

I got a work laptop 5+ years ago, system76 and it was Rock solid and still works. Bought a home PC sys76 in 2016 also solid. Bought a new laptop 2 months ago, Onynx and doing great minus an issue with dual mini display port inputs on login (the displays shutoff on desktop dislpay and I have to open/close the laptop lid to redetect all attached displays...)

I've had 1 or 2 minor help request issues and they've always come through promptly.

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Similar story here.

Got mine since 2010 or 2011. It's my only machine, is used daily and regularly, and works without issues.

That touchpad though; it does acquire sentience sometimes :) [I don't care, tbh; it's something I can easily tolerate from a small retailer doing Linux-only work, versus e.g. Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.]

My S76 laptop that I use for work has been solid in terms of functionality and reliability. I can't complain about those things. The overall build quality of the laptop is terrible. The touchpad is terrible and has poor fit and finish. The keyboard is terrible. The display is pretty decent, no complaints there. Thing is this machine cost around $1600, which is not cheap and puts it in a category where flaws like these are not acceptable. I like literally everything else about the company, and would want to support them on my next purchase, but they need to produce higher quality products at the price point.

Just curious, what laptop do you have? I'm always open to hearing constructive criticism like this, and it's something we've been more aggressively addressing with recent products. But I'd love to know which product it is so I can share that feedback with our team.

It's a gazelle, 4 core, 16GB, purchased just short of two years ago. Since you asked for feedback I'll be more specific: the touchpad plastic cover curls up at the front and has a sharp edge, the buttons are very thin, don't sit evenly, and have a very mushy feel. The keyboard is also mushy and has very poor feel. The joinery on the case is poor with unfinished sharp edges. The case/chassis itself is not stiff, flexes slightly and creaks when you pick it up one-handed for example. I use the laptop over vnc these days from another machine with monitors/keyboard/mouse so the issues don't affect me much, and performance wise I'm rather happy with it. Fwiw.

Touchpads and linux is a very sad story in general. It would be great to see hardware, firmware and kernel driver deliver the same feel like Apple. However the current situation is Apple clearly being the market leader when it comes to trackpad quality.

Fun fact: my precision 3800 trackpad works way better on Fedora 27 than on windows 10. However, that is no match at all compared to a macbook pro.

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