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Linux Computer Maker System76 To Move Manufacturing To the US (opensource.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Linux computer manufacturer System76 made its mark in part because of its commitment to open source principles and doing what it believes is right. Last year it released its homegrown Linux, Pop!_OS. In early March, System76 founder Carl Richell tweeted about the company's plans to locate its computer manufacturing factory in Denver, Colorado. By moving its manufacturing from China to the United States, System76 is offering more proof that it's not afraid to buck prevailing tech norms to do things "the System76 way." Carl Richell, founder and CEO of System76, says in a Twitter exchange that they anticipate shipping products from the factory by the end of the year.

12 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Assembler, not manufacturer. by Kenja · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All the parts, will still be manufactured elsewhere.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Assembler, not manufacturer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      what, do you want them to fab their own chips in house or something?

    2. Re:Assembler, not manufacturer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Did you RTFA?

      Don Watkins: Why are you building a factory in the United States when so much is offshored?

      Louisa Bisio: Over the last 12 years, we've developed every capability, capital-wise, that an organically grown hardware company can. We can make careful and deliberate choices about hardware and our product line. We can customize all parts of the software stack from the firmware level to the operating system experience. But today, we can't design and manufacture our products.

      It's similar to how Tesla used a Lotus chassis for their first car. Like the Roadster, the outside of our computers might look similar to others, but it's the inside that counts. The strategy was cash-efficient and allowed us to focus on developing high-value areas of the company. However, knowing what we wanted to build—but without the means to do so—left us constantly yearning.

      Chris Short: Where are systems being built before the factory opens?

      LB: Current products are produced from a global supply chain with much of the manufacturing concentrated in China. Final assembly, OS imaging, and QC testing are in Colorado and California.

      Sure, they could be lying, but it seems pretty obvious what their plans are here.

    3. Re:Assembler, not manufacturer. by kilodelta · · Score: 2

      Well if they did that we'd have to call them the successor to Commodore.

    4. Re:Assembler, not manufacturer. by timjones · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Read the article. They understand, as should YOU, that you can't just suddenly start manufacturing every last part immediately. They'll take back what they can, AS they are able.

      Did you expect them to make the CPUs and the hard drives and the screens all on day one? Is that realistic for anyone in the hardware business, even an Apple or Samsung?

      At least System76 is making more of an effort than anyone else, and open-sourcing it along the way. That's way more than Lenovo, HP or any other major brand is doing.

  2. Re:Still Too Expensive by FictionPimp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or buy a dell with ubuntu pre-installed.

  3. Re:Name sounds like SystemD to me. by harrkev · · Score: 2

    Oh and they push Ubuntu. No thanks.

    So, this isn't good enough for you? They have to settle on your preferred flavor of distro?

    If only there was a way to wipe a hard drive and install a different OS on it. I wonder why this hasn't been done before.

    --
    "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
  4. Re:Still Too Expensive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    System76 laptops are built and certified with Linux. If you buy a Windows laptop somewhere else, you're rolling the dice on Linux compatibility. And they actually care about usability, ensuring enough accessory ports.

  5. Good for them by tobiasly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wow, tough crowd in here. If you RTFA (yeah I know, bear with me here) they seem very sincere about pushing forward the state of open source computer systems. No, they may not be fabbing their own chips or using your favorite Linux distro, but I'd think the Slashdot crowd would be more receptive of another player putting significant skin in the game.

    I bought my dad one of their "Meerkat nettop" devices (IIRC), must have been 10 years ago now. I was tired of the endless phone calls about whatever Windows problem he was having that month. Yeah, I could have built him something for cheaper but having something supported by a real company was quite attractive and I felt much better about recommending that he spend his money with them as opposed to, say, Dell, where MS gets a cut.

    It's been wonderful. Support calls have dropped to almost nothing. Once I had to reinstall Ubuntu when whatever LTS it came with ended support. But he still uses that system to this day, checking email and browsing the web.

    Thank you, System76, for showing us that a real company can make real Linux-based consumer products and be successful. Best of luck on your new facility. Too bad your systems are so reliable, or I'm sure I'd be recommending my dad buy another one by now.

  6. Re:But those jobs are NEVER coming back !! by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 2

    While, as a hardware engineer, I love the idea of factories coming back to the US so I don't have to deal with the incessant BS of dealing with China/Taiwan factories, I'm not going to blame the media for the reason they got there in the first place.

    They got there because those companies can make things for cheap, they can do it by breaking many of the labor/environment laws the western world has adopted, they have a comparatively infinite supply of cheap labor, and they have a lot of inexpensive space to build out. So by moving this back to the US, and complying with US laws, paying US labor rates and US property values, the product is certainly going to cost more.

    Will it cost more and be like Apple, a solid system that can be relied on? Or is to going to cost more and still feel like an HP/Dell/Lenovo craptop, wherein we should just go buy one of those for cheaper?

    This is how the world really works. I wish them well, I hope they take the harder path and succeed, but I'm not going to blame the media for "spreading lies", I'm not going to blame the liberals for setting labor standards or environmental standards. I'm going to once again point the finger at ourselves for believing that we can have a global economy in the first place, as long as national boundaries and laws vary so wildly.

  7. Re:POP!_OS ?? by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 2

    I have it on a machine I bought from them in November. It's mostly just a minimalist Ubuntu distro that comes with the System76 firmware and an custom "app store" style interface for apt-get.

    I like it, but it's hard to really think of it as a distinct distro yet.

    I gather they have plans to build more customization into it over time though.

  8. Re:And Still Pay the Windows Tax? No Thanks by FictionPimp · · Score: 2

    You do not pay the windows tax. In fact, selecting Ubuntu lowers the cost of the laptop by around $100.