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System76 Oryx Pro Linux Laptop is Now Thinner and Faster (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the beast-hardware dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Last week, System76 started to share details about its refreshed Linux-powered Oryx Pro laptop. It would be thinner and more powerful, while adding twice the battery life of its predecessor. Unfortunately, we did not yet know exactly what the laptop looked like. Today, we finally have official images. The new Oryx Pro is quite breathtaking, as it is a true Pro machine -- with the USB Type-A, Ethernet, and HDMI ports you expect -- while being just 19mm thin. It has the horsepower that power-users need, thanks to its 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10-Series GPU.

115 comments

  1. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, watch: Mitch

  2. Re:Meh by Guybrush_T · · Score: 0

    This comment is making such little sense that I am hesitating if this should be modded as Troll or Funny.

  3. Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    System76 Oryx Pro Linux Laptop is Now Thinner and Faster

    I don't want a "thinner" laptop. I want a laptop with a DVD drive, even if it makes the device slightly thicker and heavier.

    (And I voted with my money last month: I purchased an HP with a DVD drive.)

    1. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I want a laptop with a DVD drive

      You would be a small minority. USB memory stick replaced DVD long ago for nearly all consumer devices, with higher capacity, higher speed and better form factor. Blu-ray will be the last gasp for optical media, and then only for old-school home theatres. When that finally peters out, optical media will be as dead as tape.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re: Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try using USB drives at most government or military installations and youâ(TM)ll see why optical is hanging on.

    3. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The easy solution to this is to have an external USB DVD drive for those increasingly rare occasions when you need to read/load/write optical media. I opted for this years ago and still have the ultraslim external DVD drive tucked away... It comes out of the drawer maybe once or twice per year now.... at most.

    4. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      You never know when you are going to come across a DVD. This is especially true if you actually travel OUTSIDE of your silicon valley cocoon.

      Having a machine with what you need BUILT IN is far more portable and clunky.

      A laptop is supposed to be neither of these things.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ok gramps.

    6. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      For me, it's been something like ten years since I last used optical media for data, 5 years since running a PC game from it. Now only use it for console games and home theatre, and I'm feeling more than a bit retro there to be honest.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I want a laptop with a DVD drive

      You would be a small minority.

      So do like IBM used to with the old ThinkPads: offer a swappable multi-device drive bay.
      Want DVD? No problem.
      Blu-ray? Just plug it in.
      More battery? Here you go.
      Less weight? Plug in an empty tray.
      More storage? Easy: second hard drive/SSD.
      Does Lenovo still offer that with their current-gen ThinkPad derivatives?

    8. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't want a "thinner" laptop. I want a laptop with a DVD drive, even if it makes the device slightly thicker and heavier.

      (And I voted with my money last month: I purchased an HP with a DVD drive.)

      So you got what you wanted already, not every laptop has to cater to the minority that you're a part of. Most people would question why the manufacturer was wasting space with a DVD drive that never gets used.

    9. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You never know when you're going to need to connect to a VGA display or a HDMI display or a DisplayPort display or USB-A or USB-B or USB-C or mini USB or Micro USB2.0 or Micro USB3.0 or SD-Card or RJ45 or 10Base-T or 3.5mm headphone and microphone or 6.35mm headphone and microphone or Firewire or Lightning or 3.5mm floppy or 5 1/4" floppy or laserdisc or whatever else. It's retarded to include such things just because "you never know when you might come across them". Having a machine with all that built in is far less portable.

    10. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I don't want a "thinner" laptop. I want a laptop with a DVD drive, even if it makes the device slightly thicker and heavier.

      How often do you actually use that? For me it's seldom enough that a USB2 drive works fine (I have three of them, I bought one in a store and got the other two from yard sales, so there's no worry about them failing because they're cheap... I can just bin 'em.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    11. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does Lenovo still offer that with their current-gen ThinkPad derivatives?

      Lenovo's current generation of Thinkpads don't have DVD drives, but you can still purchase some of last year's models that have DVD drives.

      And HP still sells a lot of laptops with DVD drives. If you walk into Walmart, Staples, or Office Depot and look at the HPs, many of them (maybe even a majority?) will have DVD drives.

    12. Re: Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1% of the population actually works in these conditions, does that justify what you just said? 1% is just a statistical anomaly. maybe "the government" should just upgrade to usb drives with better internal policies.

    13. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      You're right. Lose the headphone jack!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    14. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For me, it's been about 10 days since last time I used optical media for running a game. I have dozens of PC games that I don't want to throw in the trash just because someone else decided that optical drives aren't "hip" anymore.

    15. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      So, your legacy collection. That's the point.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    16. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There were netbooks with VGA and HDMI, RJ45, SD and USB-A.
      There are laptops with VGA and Displayport. What's wrong exactly?
      A monitor can last 10-15 years, an RJ45 cable may last about indefinitely (even CAT5 supports gigabit, and CAT5e more than that), speakers can last 50 years etc.
      On the other hand floppies and laserdisc are dead. VGA does HD and full HD, USB-A takes 1 terabyte drives, RJ45 is as fast as residential fiber, 3.5mm jack outperforms most human hearing and speakers. Floppies can't store an HD movies. So not the same thing.

    17. Re:Thinner doesn't appeal to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rare occasions? I buy and rip discs all of the time. An optical drive is an absolute necessity.

  4. I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work in marketing analytics and we're constantly crunching through massive datasources which require servers/cloud-based systems to make the work and timing managable.

    A simple MacBook Pro with 8GB and an i5 is more than enough for me to load RDP, terminals for SSH, and the applications I might be using locally.

    Honest question, being I'm doing 100% of my development on remote machines either at the data center or in the cloud, how many people require actual big horsepower on their machine to get their jobs done?

    1. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Informative

      Gamers... A lot of people play games on their home laptops.
      Developers... i5 is ok, but if you're compiling code you can peg things out fast. Not everybody is a web or cloud developer or admin. I've got an i7 Macbook pro, and I peg it out a lot with the fan going full aggro.
      Data crunching... faster CPU means faster data crunching (unless you're solely on the cloud).
      MS Office... seriously, least efficient programs in the universe...

    2. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use a "gaming" laptop for my live shows of algorithmic art. I can do basic stuff on Intel integrated GPUs, but for decent resolutions and smooth framerates I need a real GPU. For a short while I lugged around a Mini-ITX machine, partly because I was worried about cooling and noise.

      In fact, while the Oryx Pro looks like a dream machine on paper (I obviously use Linux), I would still be worried about cooling. The "business" laptops I've used so far don't have enough cooling for all their CPU and GPU power, and they end up throttling the clocks in high loads over more than a few minutes.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    3. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Xenolith0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I'm a Linux Consultant/Instructor and often have a need for running many (many) virtual machines simultaneously as I simulate a clients setup and possible setups. Sometimes for larger projects I'll run VMs from a datacenter but often it's much faster and more convenient to have everything local.

      I'm running a Lenovo P51 with a Xeon, 64 GB ECC, and two 1TB NVMe drives in a zfs-raid (Hello 4GB/s disk read speeds on a laptop).

      I'm totally only replying to this because I wanted to brag about my laptop...

    4. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by jedidiah · · Score: 2

      If you are using a laptop as nothing more than a terminal, then what's the point of paying for an Apple product?

      If your PC or laptop is not intentionally crippled, it can do it's own number crunching. No need to treat it as a glorified VT-100.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by exomondo · · Score: 2

      A simple MacBook Pro with 8GB and an i5 is more than enough for me to load RDP, terminals for SSH, and the applications I might be using locally.

      You'd probably be just fine with a Chromebook.

      Honest question, being I'm doing 100% of my development on remote machines either at the data center or in the cloud, how many people require actual big horsepower on their machine to get their jobs done?

      You mean given what you do how many people do something else? Not everybody is managing computers, computers are used for a *lot* of things, if you're doing CAD, CAM or CAE, 3D or 2D content creation, animation, rendering, audio production, video production, gaming, etc... you're going to need performance on the local machine particularly in a laptop if you want to be mobile.

    6. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by TeknoHog · · Score: 3, Interesting

      i5 is ok, but if you're compiling code you can peg things out fast. Not everybody is a web or cloud developer or admin. I've got an i7 Macbook pro, and I peg it out a lot with the fan going full aggro.

      There are much bigger differences between Intel CPUs than the i[357] designation. In the same year's releases, you can easily find an i5 that runs circles around an i7. I assume you're talking about two CPUs within the same market segment, such as ultrabook or mobile workstation.

      Of course, within the same series the i[357] differentiation does have some meaning, but in my experience it's not that big a difference. To me, i3 is crippled in some obvious way, but i7 doesn't offer that much over an i5.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    7. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I'm running a Lenovo P51 with a Xeon, 64 GB ECC, and two 1TB NVMe drives in a zfs-raid (Hello 4GB/s disk read speeds on a laptop).

      That's a big......drive.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    8. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Saija · · Score: 1

      At work we are using some Lenovo P50s, nice beast, very simmilar to your setup, only difference is ours have dual graphic card: the intel factory and some nVidia(forgot model). This laptops are awesome, we run mostly some CRM/BPM crossover product which eats RAM and CPU cycles as if they were to be the last on planet earth.
      Only drawback from this Lenovo models are their SSD: out of 11 laptops on our project, 10 had to be replaced(number 11 is mine, I'm still waiting my doom)

      --
      Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
    9. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by garcia · · Score: 1

      Chromebooks don't run Office and I need to operate in a Windows world.

    10. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by randallman · · Score: 1

      A "simple" machine with 8GB RAM for ssh and RDP. I must be getting really old.

    11. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      very, VERY few gamers play on linux. So in this case, moot point
      Devs - certainly more cores and memory = faster builds
      Data Crunching - see above
      MS Office - your bias shows.

    12. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are much bigger differences between Intel CPUs than the i[357] designation. In the same year's releases, you can easily find an i5 that runs circles around an i7. I assume you're talking about two CPUs within the same market segment, such as ultrabook or mobile workstation.

      You're misunderstanding Intel's market seg strategy. Obviously, an i7 capped to 35W is not going to touch the i5 K which has a TDP of like 90W or higher. But, an i7-8700K is not significantly different than an i7-8700T or i7-8700HQ (low power and mobile versions). The lower power parts are just internally limited as to their TDP. When you do that, of course performance drops. But, you can do the exact same thing to an i5 part and the i7 will again be more powerful. The i7s really are all the same part, but with different TDP limits. So, sure, when you limit an i7 to 35W it can't best the unlimited K-class i5. Regardless, when someone says an i7 is better than an i5, that's generally true, and we all know it. You can't put an K-class i5 into a MacBook, so of course the i7 is best.

    13. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by jon3k · · Score: 1

      Because, realistically, most of the applications he's using (e-mail, video, social media, etc) are being run in a browser written in megabytes of javascript.

    14. Re: I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Office is available on Chromebook

      https://support.office.com/en-us/article/how-to-install-and-run-microsoft-office-on-a-chromebook-32f14a23-2c1a-4579-b973-d4b1d78561ad

    15. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Thumper_SVX · · Score: 1

      Then I'm not 100% sure why you've got a Mac... you can get far better machines for far less money that'll run Windows and do exactly what you need.

      My Windows laptop of choice these days in a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. It's really small, portable, fast and does everything I throw at it well enough. It's also a shedload cheaper than a Macbook Pro and has a fantastic touchscreen (which yes, I use... with the stylus as well for handwritten notes in OneNote).

    16. Re: I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by garcia · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, Microsoft only supports their Mobile Office applications in the Google Playstore, not the actual and, in my case, I need the actual ones.

    17. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by garcia · · Score: 1

      1. It's a company machine.

      2. When I did get the inferior PC from the office, I immediately disabled the touchscreen; it was awful.

      3. I use a Mac at home and I'm more comfortable with it after 10 years of being off Windows.

    18. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by null+etc. · · Score: 1

      So I'm guessing that your Facebook news feed regularly shows ads for Anstle machines, amirite?

    19. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huge... tracts of RAM...

    20. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Chromebooks don't run Office and I need to operate in a Windows world.

      Sure they do, previously they used to only run the mobile version of Office but since the end of last year they've been running the full Office 365 suite.

      But you're reinforcing my point that just because a particular machine might be fine for somebody it doesn't mean that's right/enough for everybody.

    21. Re:I've come to expect LESS machine in 2018 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      8GB is the new 512MB. 512MB would still be enough, if you also do your browsing through ssh or RDP.
      My dream laptop would have : 6-watt Atom, 16GB RAM (or more), IPS display

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My TV doesn't have old ass VGA, nor should it. Dumbass.

  7. Re:Meh by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    Obviously, 1G network is the most you will get on any laptop. 10 Gige remains clunky and expensive, and not needed for anything I can imagine doing with a laptop. That said, isn't it strange how 10G USB is already shipping on mid-priced desktops, but consumer Ethernet is still stuck at turn-of-the-century. What is the path forward, 10 Gige USB dongles?

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  8. Battery Life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Does the battery life still suck? That was the biggest problem with System76 machines.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Re: Meh by Type44Q · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not to mention, a proper "pro-grade" laptop should have at least two connections to AC power, for redundancy.

  11. battery life? by jkajala · · Score: 2

    Hope the battery life is dramatically improved. System76 laptop are (or at least have been) based on Clevo laptops which have poor battery life.

    1. Re:battery life? by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      The 44 W/hr battery seems adequate for this form factor, since the i3 is not exactly a fire breathing beast.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:battery life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem isn't Clevo. Clevo manufactures pretty much everyones laptops. The problem is System76 is building off shitty designs and using shitty components that can't be properly supported in Linux. Unfortunately there aren't many companies shipping systems where the code is released such that us kernel hackers amongst us can fix the problems. You can find a number of copycat "Minifree" companies selling super old (10+ year stuff) refurbished laptops with LibreBoot that are decent (except for the high failure rates and some issues with support due to the reverse engineered LibreBoot/CoreBoot BIOS) and ThinkPenguin which has all brand new laptop and desktop systems which only uses components where all the non-low-level code has been released- and so those systems work pretty well and get decent battery life. But that's about it that I've found.

  12. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not to mention, a proper "pro-grade" laptop should have at least two connections to AC power, for redundancy.

    Since it's a laptop, can't you sort of just count the built in battery backup?

  13. Price by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Informative

    Price is $1599. Not out of line if the quality is there. A bit of a surprise to see the VGA connector, but there are still a lot of VGA projectors out there for the road warriors among us. I guess, this looks like worth the money compared to the usual flimsy ultrabooks that sell for a similar price. And Apple... got an expensive one here with a display that developed white blotches all over it. Apparently common, and Apple tries to blame users. Rejected, permanently.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Damn, it's everything I wish the MacBook Pro was and considerably cheaper: more powerful and upgradeable, includes common interface connectors... if only it ran OS X.

      I'm not desperate for a new MBP yet, but since Apple switched to all-soldered/all-glued/zero upgrade potential and then added the crappy butterfly keyboard and touchbar, I have zero incentive to replace my current MBP with a new one. I might have considered Win7 when it comes time to retire the MBP, but there's no way I'll willingly use Win8/Win10 as my primary OS. I don't want to encourage anyone by buying a machine that's pre-infected with Windows even if it's immediately nuked & paved with Linux, so maybe it's time to start looking at these other outfits...

    2. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely agreed on all points.
      It makes me sad to look at what Apple's Macbook line has become. So underpowered, non-upgradeable, and orverpriced. And their insane addiction to dongles blows my mind.
      I'm getting whatever mileage I can out of my current Apple hardware but that's the end of the line unless Apple does an about-face when it comes time for me to buy a new laptop. System76 is definitely at the top of my list, especially with their new aluminum body laptop coming out.

    3. Re:Price by Chaset · · Score: 1

      Almost ditto here. Apple is headed in the wrong direction, and I'm slowly planning my Linux migration, hopefully complete by the time my current MBP dies. I guess I'm still silently hoping Apple makes good hardware again.

      In terms of expandability, the Pismo PBG3 was probably the best. Two expansion bays (maybe one was battery only), cardbus slot, 2xfirewire, Infrared, upgradable RAM, CPU, and HD. The generation before that was OK if you had older peripherals.

      Those were the days.

      --
      -- "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
    4. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Run Plasma 5 with Latte Dock. You'll barely notice the difference between it and OS X.

    5. Re:Price by corychristison · · Score: 1

      This actually looks quite good for the price. The only thing I'd upgrade is the SSD to NVMe, 250GB is fine for mobile.

      Side note: Why can't I get it with no O/S? I don't want Pop_OS or Ubuntu.

    6. Re:Price by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Meh. System76 doesn't have the "courage" that Apple does. /s

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    7. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a shame Apple doesn't know how to make good laptops any more.

    8. Re:Price by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Belive it or not, I'm still booting my Pismo from time to time. It has Debian on it (oldstable), a small SSD and 1GB or RAM.
      Useless for web browsing when Javashit is able to use 100% of a core on an i7, but usable the rest of the time.

    9. Re:Price by jon3k · · Score: 1

      Side note: Why can't I get it with no O/S? I don't want Pop_OS or Ubuntu.

      I assume because it's cheaper to just have them all imaged. Might be a supply chain thing? They can get them imaged at/near manufactur, then shipped in bulk to for distribution. So by time they're ready to be ordered and delivered, they've all already got an OS on them.

    10. Re:Price by jon3k · · Score: 1

      I know several Mac users in the same situation. My advice to use is to start using Linux on your Mac via Parallels, VMWare Fusion or even better (free) Virtualbox. I'm typing this from an Arch VM on my HP 840 work laptop. Works great, battery life is more than adequate.

      This will allow you to start building your linux workflow tools, applications, processes, etc while still being able to instantly switch back to OS X if you get stuck on something, without any serious interruption. So you can decide on a per-task basis how much time to spend right now to migrate it to a new workflow on linux.

      After a few weeks you should have a pretty good idea of how viable it is for you to switch to linux, and already start fine tuning things.

      I've been doing a lot of research on linux latpops lately, and I think my personal preference would be Thinkpad Carbon X1 or Dell XPS 13 (Developer Edition). Although the announcement of Linux apps on ChromeOS has me very excited.

    11. Re:Price by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      I have a system76 laptop with a 4000 series i7 still running strong. My only gripe is it doesn't have a dedicated vid card. Otherwise it's handled compilation, transcoding, and VM's very well for the ~4 years I've owned it.

  14. Now it's also made in USA and full of NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you may want to think of that before buying these "highly secure" Linux laptops.

    1. Re:Now it's also made in USA and full of NSA by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Is Russia making laptops now?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Now it's also made in USA and full of NSA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's Russia got to do with this? It's like you're trying some "whataboutism" but have no clue how it works.

  15. No smart card slot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No smart card (so no CAC/ECA), no integrated LTE (not everyone can use WiFi), and no way to drop the integrated camera. So much for this being my new work machine.

  16. without updates by misu124 · · Score: 4, Informative

    System76 rejected to support LVFS for firmware updates https://blogs.gnome.org/hughsi...

  17. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's right. "Pro" laptops should have dual SFP-10G ports.

    HDMI HDCP downstream operates without infesting the kernel. It's the responsibility of the player application to check the HDCP downstream status in order to provide enforcement (it's a very weak copy-protection system, only designed to prevent casual piracy by the computer illiterate).

  18. Nope. by LaughingRadish · · Score: 2

    No optical bay, no mobile phone radio, no smart card reader, no 7-row keyboard, no middle mouse button, volume controls crammed into a shift on the function keys. The article doesn't show the keyboard or monitor, which are extremely important when selecting a laptop. I found shots of it elsewhere at https://system76.com/guides/or.... There's just not a lot there that isn't different from any other laptop.

  19. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It you bought a TV anytime in the last twenty years that doesn't have a DVI port, you're the dumbass.

  20. Breathtaking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Neck beard fanboys trying to build excitement for a piece of shit by calling it breathtaking. Leave it to the professionals boys

    1. Re: Breathtaking by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The professionals who never noticed PRISM getting into their brands?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  21. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Almost no wiring closets support 10Gig over copper to the desktop workstation. So it utterly makes no sense at this point. 10gig over copper can't go very far. Most laptops don't even come with RJ45 ports, you use your type-C dock if you want hardwire or you use 802.11ac which is faster than 1gig copper if done right.

  22. meh my old system76 still doesn't work right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I found out the hard way how system76 deals with its shitty hardware and customer support issues. They just ignore you. I highly doubt this laptop has reliably better battery life because the power management has NEVER worked right on older model system76 laptop. I might get better battery life temporarily- but it doesn't last. I think this is why they have really only ever supported Ubuntu and more recently forked Ubuntu. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with Ubuntu. I think the real problem is there are serious design defects with the companies hardware which prevent them from being able to support it properly. There not the only company I've had issues with in the Linux space. Most seem frankly incompetent. I believe they resorted to a fork of Ubuntu so that they can include proprietary components that can't be properly integrated or supported.

    I would buy another Linux laptop- but not from them. If the issue was just a bug that the community could fix I wouldn't be so upset with them. That isn't the case. They knowingly design "appealing" systems in a terms of specs at the price of the hardware not being properly supportable by the community. They act as if they just have to make the systems work sufficiently for a few weeks until a customer is beyond the return period.

  23. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can anyone say $1600? Fuck that shit, I can buy a better laptop for less.

  24. No middle mouse button?! by yorgasor · · Score: 1

    Who the heck makes a Linux laptop and leaves out the middle mouse button? I mean, come on. Know your target audience. I'll stick with Thinkpad laptops with mouse nubs and middle clicks, thank you very much.

    --
    Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
  25. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DVI has been obsolete for years, so unless you have some ancient piece of shit, your TV shouldn't have DVI or VGA ports.

    My displays and computers all have HDMI and DisplayPort, which are the modern standards.

  26. Re:Meh by PixetaledPikachu · · Score: 1

    Obviously, 1G network is the most you will get on any laptop. 10 Gige remains clunky and expensive, and not needed for anything I can imagine doing with a laptop. That said, isn't it strange how 10G USB is already shipping on mid-priced desktops, but consumer Ethernet is still stuck at turn-of-the-century. What is the path forward, 10 Gige USB dongles?

    I'm assuming he wants dual 1G ports, which is pretty cool if you can have it on laptop.

  27. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But not with as good an operating system.

  28. Numeric keypad? by Shompol · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Do we really need numeric keypad? I haven't touched it in the past 20 years. I learned about it by accident: https://www.amazon.com/967428-... -- a separate numeric keypad ended up never being used. It's just there to create clutter and make finding the Enter key difficult.

    1. Re:Numeric keypad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do we really need numeric keypad? I haven't touched it in the past 20 years

      Oh, so because you haven't used one in such a long time then it's really not worth keeping is it? What kind of logic is that?

      Fuck's sake, people are supposed to be smart and capable of out-of-the-box thinking here.

    2. Re:Numeric keypad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do we really need numeric keypad? I haven't touched it in the past 20 years

      Oh, so because you haven't used one in such a long time then it's really not worth keeping is it? What kind of logic is that?

      The numeric keypad makes everything else off-centered, especially the trackpad, to the point that I find it unbearable.

      Actually I clung to my old Dell precision laptop for over 9 years when the 15" models started to have keypads. Finally last year, Dell produced 15" laptops with so small bezels that the keypad would not fit. Then I nicely asked at work for a new laptop and got a 15" Precision, with 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, and a 4k (3840x2160) screen. I would have been happy with the 1920x1080, but the 4k turned out to be the only option on the slightly cheaper 20th anniversary edition.
      The fact that it is a touchscreen on the other hand is useless in my opinion and the screen becomes dirty very rapidly if you use it.

      This was not cheap, about €3000, but the machine is fast, very nice, and you can't even get something similar from Apple.

    3. Re:Numeric keypad? by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

      This! It's hard enough to find a decent desktop keyboard without it. http://iki.fi/teknohog/rants/k...

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    4. Re:Numeric keypad? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      Believe it or not, other people's use cases are different from yours. The keypad doubles as directional keys, in case you never noticed. Shock, I know.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:Numeric keypad? by jon3k · · Score: 2

      Do we really need numeric keypad? I haven't touched it in the past 20 years.

      As someone who types about three hundred IP addresses per day - dear god yes, please keep the numeric keypad. Now with that said, there are plenty of options that do not include a number pad, and I don't think having options is a bad thing. And for what it's worth at home I use an 87U tenkeyless with external 23U tenkeypad.

    6. Re:Numeric keypad? by Shompol · · Score: 1

      ...types about three hundred IP addresses per day...

      Sounds like a little automation can change your life. Number pad is not always the answer.

    7. Re:Numeric keypad? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use it often with numlock off to scroll web pages.

    8. Re:Numeric keypad? by jon3k · · Score: 1

      It's not really three hundred, and it's based on what host I need to access or what ACL I'm writing or what address I'm grepping in a log, etc. I just work with a lot of IP addresses. Nothing you can automate.

    9. Re:Numeric keypad? by toddestan · · Score: 1

      It depends. I use the numpad a lot on my work PC, but I ditched it on my home computer and don't miss it most of the time.

      Also, a $480 wireless keyboard? And it's a Logitech?

    10. Re:Numeric keypad? by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

      I sympathize. Laptops these days are made with very little distinction between brands. The Thinkpads (particularly T series) were perfectly tuned for people who actually spend an appreciable about on time on them. After the sale to Lenovo, it quickly became yet another Brand X.

  29. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have they not noticed this is the year 2018?

    Yes, that's why it has good wifi.

  30. No trackpoint by execthis · · Score: 1

    No trackpoint.

    Pffffttt

  31. Data cost for RDP and SSH away from Wi-Fi by tepples · · Score: 1

    A simple MacBook Pro with 8GB and an i5 is more than enough for me to load RDP, terminals for SSH, and the applications I might be using locally.

    Ideally, you'd be making the most of what you can run locally. Because otherwise, how much data does your use of RDP, SSH, X11-over-SSH, and VNC-over-SSH amount to per month? And how much would such a cellular data plan cost? Not everybody happens to live in an area where city buses offer Wi-Fi at no additional charge to paying riders.

  32. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, because I totally can't install any operating system that I want...

  33. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But pay a Windows tax first before doing so . ..

  34. Re:Meh by jon3k · · Score: 1

    That said, isn't it strange how 10G USB is already shipping on mid-priced desktops, but consumer Ethernet is still stuck at turn-of-the-century. What is the path forward, 10 Gige USB dongles?

    Not really. People don't need 10GbE because they don't need to transfer anything locally at those speeds in most cases and their broadband isn't anywhere near that. Not to mention 10GbE switching is still very expensive compared to 1GbE. So 10GbE locally isn't of much use in the vast majority of uses cases. USB offers an option for transferring files universally inside your network, outside, etc. The average consumer is far more likely to need to copy to their external USB hard drive than to their NAS.

    Of course high end consumer motherboards are already starting to ship with 10GbE LoM. It just hasn't trickled down into the mid-range and lower consumer products due to lack of demand.

  35. Manufacturer Quality? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This laptop sounds terrific, but I've never owned a System 76 laptop before. Occasionally I see people complaining about issues with components not functioning properly and needing repair but maybe they're just the loudest and it makes the issues seem more prevent than they really are. Would some people here that have experience using System 76 machines please provide their experience with the quality of the laptops over time?

    Thanks!

  36. Fine, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I too want a DVD (actually Blu-Ray) drive.

    Do you know how many CD, DVD and Blu-Ray drives were installed in computers over the years? It was well over a billion I'm sure. Optical media were the standard for portable storage for a very long time. That doesn't go away very quickly. How many IT shops don't have some installer or data disks lying around somewhere?

    Then there are the occasional problems I encounter with USB drives. I've had systems that would not boot from a USB port. I've had USB drives that the computer would not recognize. I still have a weird problem with USB drives that causes a BSOD, that is data dependent!

    USB drives are great when they work. When they don't work I want an optical drive as an option.

  37. Looks sweet! by rjzak · · Score: 1

    I welcome the 8th generation Intel Core i7, 32GB RAM, M.2 storage, and the Nvidia 1060 or 1070. It looks like a Pro machine to me, I'm not sure why so many other comments are just whiny complaints. It packs a lot of power in a nice looking machine. For the tin foil hat folks, they also disabled the Intel management stuff (same as Purism https://puri.sm).

    --
    Professional Genius
  38. Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A Linux laptop follows the trends set elsewhere, years ago. Gee, so cutting edge!

    - Ultrabooks;
    - The Mac Air series;
    - The entire tablet product sector;

  39. Nerp! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No floppy disk, no 56k modem, no Zip disk reader, no full-stroke buckling-spring keyboard, no built-in trackball, volume controls aren't analog knobs sticking out of side. Lame.

    Is today 420? Because you are definitely smoking something.

    1. Re:Nerp! by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

      Were you trying to be clever by referencing stuff that haven't been on laptops for a couple decades? Is it somehow uncouth to want to know what the physical user interface is like? Are cellular data radios obsolete?

  40. Re:Thinner and Faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which still ends up costing less than buying one of these System76 computers...

  41. Still only with QWERTY keyboard layouts? by Herve5 · · Score: 1

    At the time we bought our two Tuxedo laptops, last year, Syst76 proposed almost the same configs but didn't offer anything else than US keyboards -contrary to the German guys at Tuxedo...

    --
    Herve S.
  42. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The path forward is 2.5 GbE and 5 GbE, which were developed after 10-gigabit and are better for a number of reasons : lower power, work on CAT5e and CAT6, a controller only needs PCIe 1x. But they're strangely absent from the market yet. It's easier to sell pixels you can't see.
    Some super fast wireless access points were supposed to have 2.5 GbE (maybe they exist?) or maybe even 5GbE if they have 60GHz wifi, some new server gear has 10 Gbase-T, compatible with 2.5 and 5 Gbps.
    I don't know about switches, obviously new ones would be needed. Plus it's very common to use a switch built into a router or modem/router, so I guess everyone drags their feet and keeps with 1 Gbps.

  43. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    VGA is common on HD and full HD TVs. No one cares that you don't use it.
    And those who use it are not stuck with 1.5 meter long cables at least.

  44. Re:Meh by toddestan · · Score: 1

    I've only seen DVI on some of the early HDTV's. Nothing that's been in made the last 10 years, probably longer. HDMI replaced DVI, and if you need to hook up DVI a converter is cheap.

    A VGA input is still pretty common.