System76 To Begin Their Own Product Design & Manufacturing

[Cerberus]

Bad thing if you are European buyer is you need to pay additional import taxes so the price of their computers goes up, but I would consider a well designed and powerful 17.3" laptop, sleek too, they should hire some developers to recreate Unity in QT on Wayland and I would buy it even if I need to pay extra taxes or modify heavily existing Gnome or KDE to make it Unity-like. If they want their computers to stand out they also need a desktop that stands out, also proper theming and all that goes with a custom desktop.

[DanL]

Oh good. For a moment there I thought you wanted something unachievable.

I don't think those goals are too unreasonable for a company like System76, except for the open hardware part. There's no way that's happening on an x86 system.

[edwaleni]

Anyone who can bring Linux on commercial hardware into a general marketplace and keep their expectations well managed should find a healthy niche. The lack of movement to Windows 10 by many orgs and the improvements in Linux is going to provide a market for a firm like System76. I welcome their effort and hope they don't lose track of why they are doing this in the first place.

[M@GOid]

Uh, no, I think you mean the experts were proven wrong. The Tesla roadster was smaller inside than a Geo Metro, and the electric range was terrible. The build quality was questionable, and they didn't sell many of them. Of the ones sold, very few are even still on the road. Tesla Motors has been losing money every year since their inception, they don't have a single profitable product. That's not to say they haven't developed some interesting technology along the way, but if we're going to evaluate them in terms of competitiveness and profitability on the open market, they fail miserably. The only reason the company hasn't gone out of business, is the backing of their billionaire owner, media hype, and their stock market cap i.e. individual investors.

As far as I know, is not that their vehicles are not profitable. Is that Elon Musk is spending all the money they get in expanding the company. The most important, apart of creating new products, is their battery factory. They know very well that without batteries (and Tesla is buying a lot) they have nothing to sell. And instead of buying from others, they can supply other factories their own batteries. This is thinking ahead to me.

[audi.rs4]

Uh, no, I think you mean the experts were proven wrong. The Tesla roadster was smaller inside than a Geo Metro, and the electric range was terrible. The build quality was questionable, and they didn't sell many of them. Of the ones sold, very few are even still on the road. Tesla Motors has been losing money every year since their inception, they don't have a single profitable product. That's not to say they haven't developed some interesting technology along the way, but if we're going to evaluate them in terms of competitiveness and profitability on the open market, they fail miserably. The only reason the company hasn't gone out of business, is the backing of their billionaire owner, media hype, and their stock market cap i.e. individual investors.

Although not wrong with anything you said, the Model 3 is poised to be the first product which is profitable. They have I think over 400,000 pre-orders now, which costs $1,000 to make a pre-order giving Tesla $400 Million before they have even built the first production car. With this kind of interest, I'm sure they have brought in other investors now. The early products were to build media hype and have unique features to get to the end game of an "affordable" or average car that the masses can enjoy (and also bring the company into profit).

[torsionbar28]

Also other parallels beyond those mentioned by the post can be drawn :

- The Tesla Roadster and the previous System76 laptops were not though by "experts" to stand a chance on the market.
(Tesla was criticized that electric doesn't have a useable range and nobody will buy it ; Linux laptops were criticized for not being able to work due to driver/firmware and that nobody will want them).
But - Surprise ! - "experts" were proven wrong and the products were enough successful to encourage more of them.

Uh, no, I think you mean the experts were proven right. The Tesla roadster was smaller inside than a Geo Metro, and the electric range was terrible. The build quality was questionable, and they didn't sell many of them. Of the ones sold, very few are even still on the road. Tesla Motors has been losing money every year since their inception, they don't have a single profitable product. That's not to say they haven't developed some interesting technology along the way, but if we're going to evaluate them in terms of competitiveness and profitability on the open market, they fail miserably. The only reason the company hasn't gone out of business, is the backing of their billionaire owner, media hype, and their stock market cap i.e. individual investors.

[franglais125]

Things I want:

• Open source UEFI firmware
• Support for coreboot.
• Open hardware. Schemata, wiring diagrams and CAD drawings for the PCB and the chassis.
• USB Type-C.
  • Charging over USB Type-C.

Your account has probably been hijacked! We all know you first and foremost want a stripped down Xserver that serves as XWayland only.
Second point would be date types in Firefox.

:P Just kidding!

[bug77]

Things I want:

• Open source UEFI firmware
• Support for coreboot.
• Open hardware. Schemata, wiring diagrams and CAD drawings for the PCB and the chassis.
• USB Type-C.
  • Charging over USB Type-C.

Oh good. For a moment there I thought you wanted something unachievable.

[laryllan]

Hopefully their devices will not be as expensive as the Model S.
I'd rather like a Volkswagen.

[uid313]

Things I want:

• Open source UEFI firmware
• Support for coreboot.
• Open hardware. Schemata, wiring diagrams and CAD drawings for the PCB and the chassis.
• USB Type-C.
  • Charging over USB Type-C.