From: sciguy via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
On 2025-07-11 22:03, sciguy via Talk wrote: ...
My attraction to System76 is that both the hardware and the OS are custom-built for each other.
In theory, you can get the same effect from mainstream vendors on models that ship with Linux or specify that Linux is supported. Most of those are not cheap, low-end models (my favourites!). Here's a reasonable deal for a Dell notebook that you can order with Ubuntu: <https://forums.redflagdeals.com/dell-latitude-3550-laptop-customized-linux-i3-1315u-8gb-256gb-long-life-battery-15-6in-fhd-ips-486-2771253/> Generally speaking, I've only had minor annoyances with Fedora on consumer laptops. (Pretty) full disclosure of problems: - Fedora comes with only open source drivers - Fedora makes it easy to install Nvidia closed-source drivers, but you must make a conscious act to get them. - I don't know if fingerprint readers are a problem because I don't use them. They used to be fairly proprietary. - some WiFi cards used to be a problem. I haven't hit that in quite a few years. - My HP Aero came with a buggy WiFi card (suspend related, in Windows and Linux). There was a setting to mitigate the problem in Win 10 and and in Linux but not in Win11. I replaced the card with a better on. (Stewart Russell helped.) - there are always bugs in the UEFI firmware but few cause me problems. - It has taken Linux a few weeks to support really new features. + I experienced that a decade ago with the Asus UX305C touchpad. After a bit, a kernel update fixed it. + longer ago, I had a problem with a Dell monitor with a touchscreen. Seems to work now.
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.
- I have touch-screens and they work. Including on my Acer Spin 1. Rotating works too. - I have an old ThinkPad x61 with a stylus, and that works. I have no newer stylus. - video resolution is easy to change from GNOME. - some firmware "features" took a while to support. Like when Modern Standby mode was introduced (and various sleep states disappeared).
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.
USB continues to be a mystery to me. I just tried connecting an external monitor to my Asus Vivobook S with a single USB cable. - reading the manual, I learned that only one of the two USB-C ports could do power and signal - the USB-C ports on the Vivobook had a symbol for DisplayPort (good+) - my USB cable with the voltage indicator powered the monitor but sent no video signal - a USB cable that came with the monitor did work for both power and signal A stupid amount of fiddling.
I didn't finish my point here. The fact that my laptop is "tricked out" with various weird hardware means that Linux is likely to not have drivers that support things like touchscreen, use of a stylus, screen rotation, video resolution, and so on. With some distros I've tried, it is a problem even getting the netowrk card to be detected (whether with wi-fi or cat-5).
When my son got a motherboard with a built-in 2.5G ethernet, the chip wasn't supported via the installation kernel but it was supported when he did an update. This was before the pandemic.
The fact that the makers of System76 went to any effort at all to select hardware they know should work with Linux I find appealing. While things like touchscreen and screen rotation is not essential for me these days, these are just examples of things that "just worked" under windows and can become a big problem with Linux.
If you do a vanilla installation of Windows, you will find that fewer devices work than with a vanilla installation of Fedora. If you buy a computer with Windows installed, the vendor will have added device drivers their hardware needs.