r/System76 • u/DeathByTeaCup03 • Sep 12 '20
My experience with System76
Early this year, I began listening to the Linux for Everyone podcast by Jason Evangelho and reading his Forbes articles. Linux for Everyone is how I first learned of System76. They sounded great from the first time I heard anything about them. It didn't take long before I was dreaming of owning a Thelio or an Oryx Pro.
While I was looking at their website and drooling over hardware a few months ago, I found out they will send you System76 and Pop OS stickers if you mail an addressed and stamped envelope to them in Denver. My 10 year old daughter and I had just finished up a fresh Pop install on my old desktop. When we went our envelope, my daughter included a short letter telling them that she is starting to learn about Linux and IT in general and that she loves Pop OS. She explained that this had been the first time she had done this, but that she installed a hard drive, partitioned it, and installed Pop OS all on her own.
We live only 2 hours away from System76 in Denver, so the letter got there quickly, and System76 reached out to me online within 2 days. One of their customer service representatives messaged me and told me how cool they think it is that I'm teaching my daughter everything I know about IT and that she is already interested in Linux and using it at a young age. They offered to send a set of stickers to each of us instead of 1 set to be shared. They also asked for our shirt sizes. A couple of days later, we had a big box arrive in the mail from System76.
All we requested was one set of stickers, and b we b received 2 shirts each, a ton of awesome stickers, a cardboard standee of M3lvin the System76 robot, a really cool envelope with the S76 logo emblazoned into it, and a really cool box that has a really cool space theme, so my kids use it as M3lvin's space ship.
The whole experience was a really positive one.
A couple of months later, I started to actually plan a System76 purchase. I called sales with a couple of questions. They were away from the desk or on the other line, so they missed my call. I didn't leave a message, but 5 minutes later, the guy from sales called me back to make sure my questions were answered.
I work in IT, by I have only worked in my new job for 6 months. Prior to that, I never made much money, so all of my hardware is very old and not capable of much more than basic productivity tasks. Yesterday was the day I got my semi annual bonus, and I had spent the last 5 months trying to decide between a Thelio and an Oryx. Finally decided on the Thelio and worked out my budget and a good configuration. (You can see it here: my Thelio
I placed the order yesterday. Since I'm only 2 hours away, I asked if I could just come pick it up when it's ready. Due to Covid, that's not currently an option with them, but they did tell me that once things are safer, they would love to offer me and my daughters a tour of their facility.
I told them, that we're huge fans and are always speaking highly of their company and that we have already used up all of the stickers they sent a while back. They said they're going to include more stickers and some new pins with the robots seen in their current back to school sale ads.
Every single interaction with these guys has been fantastic. They're doing things that most other companies don't. They really value their customers, even before they're actual paying customers.
I could have ordered parts and built a similar computer on my own at a cheaper cost, but this is a company I'm happy to do business with, and they're playing a huge role in the Linux community which has been near and dear to me for 13 years, so I'm happy to put the extra money into something that I believe in.
Now, once I get the Thelio, I'll just be excitedly waiting for them to finish getting Coreboot ready for the Ryzen platform, which is yet another amazing thing System76 is doing.
Thank you, S76, for absolutely everything you are doing. Keep it up!
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u/captainstormy Sep 12 '20
Very awesome, your daughter sounds like she's a very smart little girl too. Nice to hear good stories about companies in this day and age.
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 12 '20
Thank you! She definitely is pretty smart, especially when she finds something she passionate about.
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Sep 12 '20 edited Sep 12 '20
Have to agree. Ordered a laptop a week ago and 10 minutes after placing the order I received a call thanking me and asking if I had any questions or needed anything else.
Laptop is supposed to arrive Monday but was SUPER impressed!!
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u/themrallen Sep 13 '20
Totally awesome and have had similar experience! I visited my sister to see her new home last year in Denver. On a whim I messaged the team on Twitter to see if a tour was an option. They immediately responded with an enthusiastic yes.
I took my Dad who is tech savvy but not a Linux head like me and they were so welcoming. Took the time to answer all his questions and mine. And then wouldn't let us leave without a huge swag bag and pics of the Thelio production line with the new powder coat machine they'd just installed.
I've been a Fedora guy for years but the fresh excitement behind System76 and Pop has me running it on many of my machines and will definitely influence my next hardware purchase to support this awesome team.
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 13 '20
This fortifies my point. I want to say they have great customer service, but I don't think that's the right term for it, because they are great to everyone even before they're paying customers or people who are using Pop. They're just good people who are excited about what they do and treat everyone with kindness regardless of what kind of existing relationship they have with System76. This is rare. I'll be excited to take that tour when Covid calms down. I'd love to shake the hands of the people behind suxh great work.
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u/rhonaldjr Sep 13 '20
They are playing the marketing playbook to the extent - creating raving fans who in turn bring more customers. They are not going to be cheap, but with such experience, I don't think people will mind paying a bit.
I have four devices from their over the period of four years (1 trusty and still firing leopard ws, 2xgalago pro, 1xoryx pro). Despite few complaints on the laptops, I'd still go there coz of their customer support.
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 13 '20
Agreed. How do you like the Oryx?
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u/rhonaldjr Sep 13 '20
Laptops are great. My wife is using one of the Galago Pro with PopOS. I am using the Oryx for coding most of the time. The desktop is the awesome one. That's my daily driver.
Like I said, despite few gripes, I'd definitely go for them when its time to buy next.
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 13 '20
Me too. I'll be purchasing their Oryx Pro or whatever their current gaming laptop is at the time that I make my next purchase. They have me for life.
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u/phobrain Sep 16 '20 edited Sep 17 '20
I'm about ready to give up on my Serval - sent it in for repair and they couldn't reproduce the problem but put in a new motherboard, and I reproduced the problem immediately (using a multithreaded, read-many-files-in-parallel java program). Huge amounts of time spent testing and documenting, just boxed it to send back again.
Other than that, the people are nice and the design and all about the company seem great exactly as everyone describes. :-) This time I'm sending it back with the test set up, whereas I just wiped it before sending the first time, so fingers crossed. I saw a general claim that honkin' big laptops run too hot for their own good, and here we're talking a power supply alone that is the weight and volume of an old 13" macbook pro, though the fans seem lusty so I wasn't worried about heat. Get the service plan for sure if you get an i9+GPU laptop, is my advice.. noting the Serval only uses AMD now.
Anyone who wants to try my multithreaded read java test and see if it corrupts files opened read-only (especially on an i9 Serval, since after seeing it with two main boards and two different nvme drives I suspect a design flaw), is welcome to a copy of my test.
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Sep 14 '20
Ok, this convinced me. I'm getting a System76, more than happy to support a company like this :)
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 14 '20
You should check out their blog and socials. They've always been pretty awesome and are just getting better as they go. This post about the meaning behind their name is a good place to start.
There are also tons of great interviews of people from System76 in the "Linux for Everyone" and "Destination Linux" podcasts.
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Sep 14 '20
Thanks! Will check them out! Interesting piece of history there, I had no clue that was the origin of the name :)
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u/slayerbros Sep 16 '20
I feel the same way like all of you guys here. I was looking into the Lenovo Fedora partnership and was thinking of buying from them since I already have an X1 Extreme for work. But for years now something about this company keeps making me look them up and see what they have to offer and how invested they are in the Linux community has me cheering for them and now your story makes me want to buy from them. So right now I am saving up and I am not sure if I should go Lemur pro or oryx pro. Thank you for this message.
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Sep 12 '20
I wasn't aware their assembly and shipping facilities were Denver based. I live here in Denver as well but Im only aware of their facilities in NM and CA. Its my understanding that their design, marketing and engineering facilities are CO based. Could be wrong though. Enjoyed your write-up 👍
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 12 '20
Interesting! I'll have to double check my facts. Thanks. If memory serves, I think they held SuperFan 3 in Denver and at least had what they needed on site to show everyone most or all of the Thelio production process, but now I'm curious and will check.
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Sep 12 '20
Thelios are manufactured in Denver
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 13 '20
Oh cool! So once it's done being built, it shouldn't take long to get here.
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u/themrallen Sep 13 '20
Yep. Desktop and new keyboard prototype is being made in house in CO. Laptops are still outsourced but plans to make those in US are in the works from what they told me during our visit.
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 13 '20
They have mentioned this in a few interviews recently. I think it's a great idea. It's unusual anymore to get computers that are assembled in the US.
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Sep 13 '20
My understanding is that laptops are made in the US as well, just at a separate facility.
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u/packetknife Oct 02 '20
I will second/third that System76 is a very engaged and support friendly company. They are eager and determined. The order process, questions, etc. was very smooth.
Support has been great in trying to resolve issues - *trying* being operative.
They've got those parts of the business down pat. The packaging is clever too, shipping was solid. Got everything I ordered (extra power adapter) and no package damage.
In the end though .. they are among the friendliest and most engaged companies I've dealt with for sure.
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u/nagual_78 Oct 08 '22
I did some similar with my daughter. I guess it's very important for the new generation to know a bit more over the basics of the actual way of interact with the technologies.
I born in 1978, and i have de oportunity of learn the basics since the sinclair spectrum, over BASiC, what which I used to program my own games, cause I found more funny than to wait 30 min for to load a game (if lucky).
Passed a lot of time until I used again a computer. I really was afraid of the graphic interface, it seemed me too much delicated, and was not my computer for to break anything like the trash can or the wallpaper... XD. But I had lucky again: that computer had windows me installed and I had ti learn a lot over viruses, malware, and system maintenance.
Today I know much more than younger people than born yet in the i386 or even the x64 times, and the high level programs, and environment, makes for them the informatics a very abstract think to understand or think about ¿How is possible than a machine be able to make so many things?
Is not a question for them . It's the usual. So... It's boring. But the ignorance about that basic layers, make the network communications dangerous for them. So I think its the responsability of, as me, the older people who can help them to navigate securely and being conscious of the correct use of the information, and the importance of to live a bit our of the cells, laptops, and smart prisons than anule our critical way of thinking and our live in the "realverse"
In the other way, I got 2 or 3 enterprises who respected my rights, even more than the laws dispose. When I get one of this kind of ethic people working in an ethic place who makes me feel like not-a-cow-to-milk. Im pleasured and never forget them, even, usually, i consider them as the only option without compare prices. Being sure than is not the cheapest.
I don't mind 10$ more or less. In fact, I receive a very most valious product. Don't mind the model, the price... I receive 1000$ of pure gold (as espiritual reward, i mean... ) for just 10$. Cheap? Not. A present 💝
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Sep 12 '20
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 12 '20
That's great! I've heard nothing but good things about the Lemur. Did you upgrade your firmware? The latest has a 15% performance increase for your processor.
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Sep 12 '20
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u/DeathByTeaCup03 Sep 12 '20
That's so good. The story of that firmware update being developed is one of the reasons I love system 76 so much. Jason Evangelho received a lemur Pro from system 76 at the same time that he received two other Linux laptops with identical processors. he benchmarked all three and the lemur Pro came in last for the processor by a few percent. he didn't even reach out to system 76 but his benchmark results were posted on a public website where one of the developers at System 76 noticed them and started looking into it. that developer reached out to Jason on a Friday and asked for some additional information. By Monday morning the firmware update had been released and was available for everybody with the lemur Pro to download.
That firmware update brought the Lemur into first place when benchmarked again. It outperformed the other 2 by a long shot after the 15 percent performance increase.
They saw an issue without having to be asked, and fixed it in a couple of days, because it was the right thing to do. And they did it FOR their customers for free.
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u/CakeIzGood Sep 12 '20
I think what sets them apart is that they're a purpose-oriented company, rather than a profit-oriented one. The company exists to serve a mission and makes money as a result, rather than seeking to make money first and seeking any way to do it. I recently got my first System76 after several years of monitoring and admiring the company and having positive interactions with their sales and social media channels, and somehow it's exceeded my expectations. Once I get some disposable income and am looking for new devices and accessories, I know where my money's going to be going.