On 2025-07-11 9:13, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk wrote:
From: sciguy via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
I understand that System76 laptops ship with Pop! OS, so I was interested in getting my hands on one.
You can easily install Pop!OS on almost any PC. It is nice to support a Linux hardware company and the Pop!OS developer. I assume that there is a considerable price premium over the good deals I see on laptops.
My attraction to System76 is that both the hardware and the OS are custom-built for each other. But looking back at previous GTALUG discussions on System76, I don't see too many glowing reviews. I know from past experience that "tricked-out" laptops like mine are generally not supported. I refer to my Acer Spin 3, which can be converted into a tablet and has a touchscreen and a stylus. It has Thunderbolt 3 but its support of my Lenovo ThinkVision portable monitor (which says it only needs USB-C without going into further detail) is lacking and works maybe 10% of the time I plug it in. I know the monitor works because it works reliably with my Samsung S24 smartphone. ...
Unfortunately, USB-3.x is all-encompassing: essentially all former USB devices conform to USB-3.2. And very intricate. So just knowing that you have USB-C doesn't give you much info.
... or *need* a particular configuration of USB-C isn't telling me much apparently. ...
You want the DVI-over-USB option for the display data. And you want it to handle your monitor's resolution, refresh rate, and colour depth (bits/pixel).
I don't see "DisplayPort-over-USB" written in the documentation, but I just got it from a blogger (TomsGuide.com) that the Lenovo requires a laptop which supports DisplayPort over USB.
You want "PD" (Power Delivery). I don't happen to know if that covers both the power transmitting side and the power consumption side.
Strangely, it claims to draw power and signal from the same USB cable and only came packaged with one USB-C cable (same connector on both ends). This is despite the fact that the monitor has two USB-C ports. Paul