ZaReason Linux PC Vendor Closes After 10 Years Selling Linux Hardware | Hacker News Reader

ZaReason Linux PC Vendor Closes After 10 Years Selling Linux Hardware

phoronix.com

43 pointsrbanffy16 comments

That's a bit sad. I still have one of their laptops that I bought over eight years ago, and it's still going pretty strong (as an almost-always-plugged-in beside the couch machine, anyway.) Happy that I bought it for what was at the time quite overspecced so haven't really needed an upgrade.

Why did this happen for them ? PC and laptop sales have been going through the roof after the onset of the pandemic. Look up any report.

Yes, by PCs you probably mean PCs with Windows have been through the roof. PCs with linux are a super niche market and people in that market usually have different preferred distros(not everyone likes ubuntu) which they know how to install themselves on hardware they can configure themselves so there's not much demand for pre built linux PCs.

System 76 is doing OK, but not growing at any crazy rate though.

Plus, WSL is now eating the market of linux on PCs.

All true, still I was glad to find that Ubuntu 'certified' compatibility with the Dell M6800, which gave me the confidence that I could install pretty much any 'desktop' Linux distribution.

Likewise a local dealer (CentralComputers) offers servers with "Linux" pre-installed (used to be free, now they charge a modest fee for it) option. I dimly recall that to be RedHat (might have been CentOS), we put Debian on it. Still, it's better than the 'bare-bone' option, as it gives you the confidence that Linux (it's almost exclusively the kernel which matters here after all) will run and that the machine does boot (otherwise not guaranteed with such customized computers).

>Ubuntu 'certified' compatibility

That certification is edging on snakeoil(or dare I say bullshit) at this point. Pretty much any laptop with integrated graphics(no nvidia) and no fancy rare hardware parts will run most distros with a recent kernel perfectly.

> Pretty much any laptop with integrated graphics(no nvidia) and no fancy rare hardware parts will run most distros with a recent kernel perfectly.

Indeed. You need to try really hard to screw yourself into Linux-incompatible hardware. And you'll end up paying more for it.

I've had HP refuse to replace a blown power supply because the installed OS wasn't supported. The Ubuntu certification gives the value that you won't get stuck with .. that.

And a lot of people who need a PC with Linux will get a Dell or a Lenovo and reinstall.

As Linux hardware support improves, it gets easier to buy a computer that "just works" with it. 20 years ago it was hit-and-miss. Now you need to actively sabotage yourself to get a computer that doesn't work with Linux.

> Plus, WSL is now eating the market of linux on PCs.

I would like to see evidence for that. People don't track Linux installs on formerly Windows laptops.

From my experience, Macs have done a lot more damage to Linux laptops than anything else just by being good laptops with a reasonable Unix on them.

> ...sickness and parts shortage...

My totally uninformed opinion is that they haven't, for whatever reason, had the marketing success that some other brands have. I'm aware of ZaReason because I have a laptop from them, but I've rarely seen them mentioned anywhere.

The only reason I knew about them to buy one at the time (2012) was because the founder was visiting the company I used to work for (they were attempting to establish a real presence in New Zealand then) and a workmate mentioned it to me as I think I was looking for a new laptop at the time.

Based on the statement on their website, it seems that their lineup has been shrinking and tech support has been slowing down. That doesn't suggest that they were in a healthy place, and so I guess it just took one more blow on top of that to knock them out.

Think you're likely correct I'm not directly in the market for a purpose built Linux machine yet I know the name System76. This closure notice is the first time I've heard of ZaReason.

Well, I'm a "Linux guy" and I never heard about this company before. It looks like I'm not the only one, so maybe they could have done something more about that.

Same here. It's ashamed they're going out of business and I feel for them but at the same time I've been an avid Linux user for a little over 20 years now and unfortunately it's the first time I've heard of them.

There was never any good reason to buy from them unless you just felt like giving them money. All of their products were just whitelabeled machines from other vendors, available elsewhere cheaper. They did nothing to differentiate their products and almost exclusively targeted wealthy hobbyists (c.f. products like "Gamerbox"). System76 innovates (even if it's just via an Ubuntu respin) and Purism tries to differentiate themselves at the hardware level. EmperorLinux sources hardware from big-name vendors and focuses on software.

I am still waiting for the "linux laptop company" to arrive that actually takes advantage of Linux, instead of shoveling consumer-grade products in one-off sales. Where is the company offering 'managed fleet' for business workstations? So far it's just Google doing it with Chromebooks, but with modern devops tools it should be a pretty easy business model.

Wow, that comment thread is a cesspool. Company closes because of “illness and parts shortages” and people go “JUST A BAD FLU!!!11!!1elevn!!”. How hard is it to take a statement at face value, particularly from a very small business where the writer was so clearly and obviously sad as to commiserate the demise of support warranties?

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