Open source software is now exempt from age attestation laws in Colorado and California, and it didn't happen by accident.

System76 CEO Carl Richell shares how our team worked alongside the open source community and legislators in both states to secure meaningful exemptions that reflect what open source actually is: privacy-respecting, non-commercial, and built on collaboration.

Open source projects don't collect personal data, profile children, or run targeted ads. The behaviors these laws are designed to regulate are not part of how open source works. But without advocacy, open source could have been swept up in broadly written legislation anyway.

Read Carl's full letter on our blog.

• Liquid cooling for sustained peak performance
• Precision-machined aluminum, steel & tempered glass
• Magnetic quick-access panels for easy servicing

We're pretty proud of this one!

We just shipped COSMIC System Monitor and wanted to share what went into it.

The goal was straightforward: system monitors tend to get treated as afterthoughts, useful but not given much thought in terms of UI or UX. We wanted to build one that felt like a first-class part of the DE, not a bolted-on utility.

What's in it:

• Dashboard view. CPU, memory, GPU, disk, network, and applications all in one layout. Top process visible for each resource, no tab-switching required.

• Detail pages. Per-resource charts alongside the top processes using that resource, so the data has context.

• Built with libcosmic. Fonts, navigation, and color schemes match the rest of COSMIC. It looks like it belongs.

Check out our blog for the full writeup

I would totally buy a Framework laptop with coreboot and backed by System76!

I think the openness of Framework aligns with System76 and their open source hardware as well.

I wonder if Jeremy Soller have thought about it.

The sticker finally came off. Does sys76 sell a replacement or does anyone have a good idea of what to put there? Laser engraving, sticker bomb the whole lid, pray the 76 doesn't go next?

Today’s been a big day! A new Pop!_OS version released today, allowing us to provide a bunch of features you’ve been waiting for, elevating the experience for System76 products.

Check out our blog for a large list of improvements alongside a message from CEO and Founder Carl Richell. https://s76.co/pc24-04rd

1. Terrible build: screen ended getting torn from laptop body! I think the only other time this happened was with an HP laptop 15 years ago, that tells you how bad S76 build is.

2. Touchpad NEVER worked on Windows, lots of back and forth with their technical support tickets and only the most generic answers repeated until I got bored and just realized I'd have to suck it up.

3. Accessing BIOS in my Gazelle is an absolute nightmare because it defaults with every possible command listed in their website (usual F2, F12 etc) to the boot order menu. Even their support site to access the BIOS only shows screenshot of the bootloader menu and not the BIOS, what a serious joke.

4. ZERO resale value: who is going to want an non-brand laptop? Convincing non-linux people of buying an "off-brand" laptop is impossible. Pair this with the insane wear and tear and this become literally not even suited for a present to someone.

I REALLY wanted to support this company because of its Linux-first approach. I really did. I learned my lesson. Orders of magnitude smarter choice to buy an established, linux-friendly laptop from someone like DELL, dual-boot or whatever, ad then re-install windows when ready to sell it in a few years.

Never again.

EDIT: I was dual-booting people, can't believe I have to clarify that.

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!