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Comment by neogodless | Hacker News Reader

Obviously the "Linux-first" is a big value-add for this brand, but the hardware for the price isn't amazing.

$1200 gets you a Zen 2 (previous generation) 6-core, 12-thread CPU[0], 8GB RAM, 240 GB NVME, 15" 1080p (did not see brightness/color accuracy mentioned.)

But I like my laptops to come with fast refresh and a dedicated GPU, and I run Windows, so I'm not their target audience. Would love to hear how this is received by those in the right market segment!

[0] A bunch of $600-700 laptops with this CPU: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-5500u

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You are right that's the value add. Not having to worry if the hardware works and having a curated linux (popOS is very much like ubuntu).

I've had a system 76 onyx laptop running popOS for over 2 years now. It keeps itself updated and I'm able to do my tasks with very minimal system configurations. Firmware updates come through fine. I think Linux hardware support is pretty good for a lot of laptops, but for me it was worth the extra money not to have to deal with it.

My system 76 is "Clevo" OEMed machine. Very much evidenced when I let stuff get in the fan and I had to replace it. Parts are available.

https://www.clevo.com.tw/index-en.asp

As someone who is new to Linux on desktop, it was pretty great. I got Unreal engine compiled, Intelij and It can even use steam. My machine has a Nvidia 1060? so its actually pretty decent for the limited gaming I do.

Like many things, if things go well and this scales up, the additional cost for having staff making sure linux is supported should go down.

It's all Clevo based anyway. System76 doesn't go much beyond what they source. It's a shame, if they actually made the effort to design a laptop that went beyond its foundation, I'd be more interested. But instead it's Clevo guts, Clevo problems.

Looking at the AMD laptop linked...

Lots of empty space that could have been slightly optimized for a larger battery. It just seems basically thought out... not like consideration is actually put into the design and layout.

System76 can afford to design their own laptops after enough people order the existing models.

System76 has been around for 16 years. If they wanted to design their own laptop, they would have done so by now.

Other companies like Purism, MNT, and Pine64 have gone way further than system76 despite being much younger.

It's not Clevo, it's Qinghua

> if they actually made the effort to design a laptop that went beyond its foundation, I'd be more interested.

Have a look at https://puri.sm/products/librem-14 then.

Mine fell apart and the company is shady.

Which component of your laptop broke and which Librem model did you order?

Price does seem to be on the higher side. It does satisfy most of my checklist though:

- Does the hardware fully support Linux? Yes.

- Does it have the latest AMD Ryzen CPU? Kind of (last gen is decent too).

- Can you run other OS on it? Yes.

- Is the screen glossy? No (is matte / anti-glare).

- Is the RAM soldered? No.

- Is the RAM upgradeable? Yes, upto 64 GB.

- Is the SSD soldered? No.

- Is the SSD upgradeable? Yes.

- Can the battery be easily replaced? Yes.

Look at the framework laptop too

Yeah, a big fan of what they've designed - just waiting for version 2 so that all the production bugs are discovered and ironed out. Hopefully v2 will come with an AMD processor.

I’m torn. I’ve heard amd Linux drivers are crap. I’ve never really had any problems with Intel. But yes I’m waiting for v2. I want them to prove out replacing the main board between revisions.

And at Purism.

I just recently got this: https://www.newegg.com/pine-gray-asus-zenbook-14-um425ua-ns7... and it’s a great laptop. The equivalent pangolin is nearly double the price.

What OS do you use with it?

I use windows on it. Only my game server runs Linux because I expose it to the internet.

$906 gets you Ryzen 7, 16GB RAM, 14", no numpad:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/search?fq={!ex=733}lengs_Screen...

That's not accurate. If you click through, it's a set of laptops starting at $906. The model at that price is

* AMD Ryzen™ 3 Pro 5450U Processor (4 cores)

* 8 GB RAM

* 128 GB storage

Here’s a better comparison. https://www.newegg.com/pine-gray-asus-zenbook-14-um425ua-ns7...

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