Friday, August 21, 2009

Top 5 things we'd all love to see from System76

We already love System76 for being truly dedicated to open source and offering Ubuntu exclusively on their entire lineup, so naturally we simply must ask for more! I have five simple, but big requests:

  1. Coreboot
    This is probably the hardest to offer, and so i'm willing to wait the longest for this, but nobody has yet been able to offer machines with Coreboot pre-installed. An open source BIOS is the largest obstacle to overcome in offering a computer with entirely open source software, and if System76 can pull that off, i'd never be able to let myself recommend buying from anyone else. LinuxBIOS was one of the top ideas ever on Dell's IdeaStorm, but if they won't offer it, System76 can! Besides, who of us would actually like Dell at all if not for their Ubuntu offering? 
  2. A Tablet
    The new netbook looks great, but still a tablet would be an incredible addition to the lineup. Currently, the only tablets available with Ubuntu pre-installed are un/re-branded machines which knocks the price up, and although the CrunchPad looks sweet, something from System76 with Ubuntu would be even sweeter! Tablets are a great thing to show off which not only promotes Ubuntu but also kills the myth that Linux does not love tablets. It does.
  3. A Media Center
    This idea has the a ton of profit potential for System76 if done properly. I'm talking about the concept of a TVPC like the Neuros Link which sold out so quickly they had to disable new purchases (still can't place new orders at the time of this post) and put the pending ones on backorder. Since most everyone is already paying for internet, there is no reason why you shouldn't kill your purely evil cable subscription. The internet after all, is the largest video library in existence, and if the focus is on streaming media, a hard drive isn't even necessary (the Neuros boots the OS from a flash drive). All that's needed is a slick looking set-top box with all the necessary inputs and outputs for a home media center PC, the minimum hardware needed for HD video, which all-in-all is pretty damn cheap, a wireless keyboard/mouse and remote control, higher hardware options for gamers, an HDD option, and some special software (Moovida media center, Miro video player, and maybe enable special compiz effects for kicks), and that's it! It's all marketing from there, and i think a lot of people would be interested.
  4. AMD/ATI Options
    Many of you may oppose this, and many of you will support it, but the simple fact is this: just like anyone else, there are Linux users who prefer Intel, and those who, like myself, prefer AMD. Some of us only care about what works best, while others value which is more open source friendly. You can argue about those things endlessly, but regardless, we do want to have a choice. 
  5. More Community Marketing
    Com'on, it's free advertising for you guys! We should all be eager to help out System76 as it's one of the best ways to spread Ubuntu, but they could really make it a lot easier for us. The 76er program should be expanded from just LoCos to individuals and no longer require an account. More materials should be posted on the wiki or the Spread Ubuntu site for anyone to print out and distribute. Remember, we love you, so help us to help you!
To add to the incentive for System76 to give us these options, i hereby promise that when they make these available, i will buy them. If you're in agreement, make the same promise in the comments! If someone from System76 stumbles across this, feel free to send me a laptop to use in the meantime since i just graduated high school and could really use one.

18 comments:

Stefan said...

What I like to see from System76 is the option to ship to Germany...

Bernd said...

I would like to buy stuff from System76, but I am from Europe/Austria and there is nothing similar here and System76 doesn't ship outside USA/Canada.

Even Dell doesn't offer a lot of Systems with Ubuntu. It's nearly impossible to buy good hardware (especially notebooks) with Ubuntu/Linux here in Europe/Austria.

JD said...

4. Unnecessary. As far as CPU, you don't want to put a AMD CPU in a laptop. That's just a fact. If it's a Desktop/Media Center, that's a different story, but i'd rather go Intel.

As far as Video Card, i would argue that AMD/ATI's "open-sourcing" of some of their specs has done more ham than good. These days there are so many X.Org drivers for ATI that it's next to impossible to figure out which to use. Also, ATI cards do not perform as well as nVidia and ATI cares less about linux. You may say that statement contradicts what i just said, but it doesn't:

ATI has created something called XvBA which is basically video (like movies, to clarify) acceleration in the GPU...However they haven't released the specs so no one can code XvBA support into their media player. When nVidia released VDPAU (their video acceleration API/standard), not only did they release API calls, they released extensive documentation and a few patches for MPlayer.

ATI only just released Catalyst 9.8 with support for kernels 2.6.29 and 2.6.30...It took them nearly 6 months to support a new kernel version which is likely as simple as adding a line to a text file, compiling a kernel module to test and re-packing the binary. Whereas nVidia usually releases a new version within 2-3 weeks of a new kernel release and they make updating it quickly if you can't wait super easy (IIRC, you add a switch to the command that builds the kernel module).

I'm sure you can hash up more examples such as: "Who supported OpenGL 3.0 on linux first? Oh yeah, nVidia"
but i'm too lazy to find more examples of AMD/ATI fail.

Seanbot said...

Yep, I have to say I'd be pleased as punch if System76 did Coreboot machines.

And I'd also love to see some people do some viral advertising, myself included. Just a subtle user-made commercial or something.

Anonymous said...

The #1 thing keeping me from System76 laptops are the mouse eraser pointers (trackpoint). I just can't stand touchpads and since I use my laptop 95% of the time, the mouse available is a crucial hardware component.

David said...

There’s another tablet-like device that comes with a Linux-based system (only): the Touch Book.

Patrick L Archibald said...

A solid state drive (SSD) option on the Meerkat Ion NetTop gets my vote. The Meerkat Ion NetTop will make a great MythTV frontend.

Vadi said...

4) Not, not "we'd all love to see". Keep it to "I'd love to see".

Anonymous said...

@JD,,,

I've never had a problem with an AMD notebook. I've gamed on them, and used them for school. There's no reason not to use them in a notebook.

Secondly, the reason ATI's cards don't perform as well in Linux as nVidia's is because ATI's Linux drivers SUCK. If Eventually, the latest open source ATI driver should correct this issue and both cards will have equal performance in Linux.

Steve said...

6) Intel video options. If I don't game all System 76 does is drive up my cost with hardware I have no use for. Leading me to...


6) Lower prices. Even with the Mircosoft-tax, I can usually price out lighter, better-looking, just-as-powerful(with the exception of video) laptops from other manufactures for a LOT cheaper.

JD said...

@Anonymous2 - Umm...Everyone i know with a AMD laptop say it's speedy, yes, but battery life is absolute crap on any OS and you could literally fry an egg on the bottom of the laptop case. Ergo...The 2 things you really don't want from a laptop, it does.

Yes, eventually the open-source drivers will help ATI cards suck less....but the specs have been out for about 2 years IIRC, and all the drivers still suck and there's still the problem of having 4 different Xorg drivers for ATI cards and not knowing which one to use.

For nVidia, you have:
xf86-video-nv: nv driver, FOSS, 2D only, not bad if you only want 2D.
xf86-video-nouveau: nouveau driver, FOSS, 2D and 3D, barely works on most cards. Not very recommended.
nvidia: nvidia binary driver, non-free, 2D and 3D support, works very well on all cards, the only driver that will give you everything. 2D performance isn't great compared to the nv driver, but it's not bad.

Joe said...

I would definitly buy a media center pc from System76. Especially if it had mythbuntu, a tv card, and remote control all preconfigured.

Anonymous said...

Coreboot would be cool but I don't really care for the rest of the suggestions.

Anonymous said...

+1 for Coreboot

Anonymous said...

The media center is a great idea.

I would also like to see a 12" ARM-based fanless laptop/netbook!

Anonymous said...

Is there _any_ reason to believe the Touch Pad is anything other investor bait vapor ware?

Anonymous said...

"If someone from System76 stumbles across this, feel free to send me a laptop to use in the meantime since i just graduated high school and could really use one."

If you send them a check first, they will certainly comply with your last request. They seem to be very good at this "laptop for money" game.

GeekBoi said...

I just met with Carl at System76 last week looking over the 15.4" laptops they offer. VERY nice looking systems. The Serval is very sturdy feeling and has all the options I want in a laptop but one.

There is no docking station options for their laptops. I almost always run multi-monitor setups at the home office and at the company office. It is MUCH easier to just drop the laptop into the docking station when I get there than it is to plug in keyboard, mouse, network, power and monitor each time.

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