So, you think if I buy the $1300 laptop from them, it'll be a good reliable machine, and I will have supported a Linux distributor with my purchase? That's the way I'm leaning now. It looks like a bad ass machine. It's got 4 memory slots, as opposed to most machines 2 slots. It's got Nvidia with 1.5GB VRAM. I think I'll upgrade to the 500GB hybrid drive with the 4GB SSD on board. That sounds sweet. I also like the fact that the display is a matte finish. One of the options is to have another hard drive in place of the DVD drive. That sounds like Ultra Bay technology, which would be IBM/Lenovo.<br>
<br>From my cart (what do you think?):<br><br><a href="http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?products_id=113%7B1%7D827%7B56%7D941%7B55%7D811%7B60%7D932%7B3%7D935%7B4%7D839%7B64%7D978%7B6%7D757%7B9%7D35%7B10%7D38%7B54%7D426%7B11%7D40%7B12%7D42%7B62%7D716"><img src="http://www.system76.com/images/gazp6_open_small.jpg" alt="Gazelle Professional" title=" Gazelle Professional " border="0" height="144" width="173"></a> <a href="http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?products_id=113%7B1%7D827%7B56%7D941%7B55%7D811%7B60%7D932%7B3%7D935%7B4%7D839%7B64%7D978%7B6%7D757%7B9%7D35%7B10%7D38%7B54%7D426%7B11%7D40%7B12%7D42%7B62%7D716"><b>Gazelle Professional</b></a><br>
<small><i> - Operating System Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) 64-bit</i></small><br><small><i> - Display Resolution 15.6" Full HD LED Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)</i></small><br><small><i> - Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M Graphics with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory</i></small><br>
<small><i> - Processor 2nd Generation Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.00GHz )</i></small><br><small><i> - Memory 4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB</i></small><br><small><i> - Hard Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 4GB SSD</i></small><br>
<small><i> - Optical Drive Bay 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive</i></small><br><small><i> - Wireless Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module</i></small><br><small><i> - Extra Battery no extra battery</i></small><br>
<small><i> - Extra AC Adapter no extra AC adapter</i></small><br><small><i> - Car AC Adapter no car AC adapter</i></small><br><small><i> - Laptop Bag no bag</i></small><br><small><i> - Hardware Warranty 1 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 1 Yr. Technical Support</i></small><br>
<small><i> - Recycle Your Old Computer no, thank you<br><br><br></i></small><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 6:32 PM, Joe Holloway <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jholloway7@gmail.com">jholloway7@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 4:48 PM, Jim Herrmann <<a href="mailto:kclug@itdepends.com">kclug@itdepends.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> The more I look at it and compare, this System 76 machine actually looks<br>
> pretty good. And it comes with Ubuntu 10.10.<br>
> <a href="http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=113&osCsid=j80qvmcncigmf60sf0b2ffv9q0" target="_blank">http://www.system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=113&osCsid=j80qvmcncigmf60sf0b2ffv9q0</a><br>
><br>
> Thoughts? Anyone had a System76 experience?<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>I bought one of their higher-end laptops about 4 years ago and have<br>
had a really good experience with it. It's running Ubuntu 10.10 like<br>
a champ and still as snappy as day one which I think was 6.10. I<br>
haven't needed any support on it, so I can't speak to that from my<br>
personal use perspective. That said...<br>
<br>
Late 2009, near the holiday season, the company I work for was in a<br>
pinch because we had just landed some significant new business and<br>
needed to quickly procure some laptops and workstations for new<br>
employees. Because of the holidays, Dell couldn't fulfill our order<br>
in time, but System76 could. We were wanting to experiment with a new<br>
vendor anyway and also eager to deploy desktop GNU/Linux for these new<br>
positions which were mainly using web-based logistics software.<br>
<br>
It turned out to be a pretty poor experience overall. We bought 10 or<br>
so of their laptops (which were lower end based on availability) and<br>
15 or so small form factor workstations. I don' t know exactly how<br>
many are still in use, but it's not very many, if any. None of the<br>
laptops we deployed at our HQ are still operational. There were hard<br>
disk failures, display adapter failures, keyboard failures, you name<br>
it. The failure rate of these devices within their warranty period<br>
was much higher than any other vendor we'd used prior to that. After<br>
the first couple of RMAs they essentially gave up and started<br>
inventing reasons why the failures were our fault so they wouldn't<br>
have to honor the warranty on them.<br>
<br>
My intent isn't to bash them or distribute FUD, but just to give an<br>
idea that their niche likely isn't as a business supplier. It could<br>
be that they were overly eager to win our business and got in over<br>
their heads... Or that our expectations were too high... Or that<br>
because of the timing of the order, we got some hobbled together lower<br>
end hardware.<br>
<br>
With all that said, if you go with System76, my recommendation would<br>
be to stick to the higher end of the spectrum. Even given our bad<br>
experience at work, I'd likely consider them on my next laptop<br>
purchase.<br>
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