Re: My experience with System76
I would also like to register a thumbs-up for System76.
I'm typing this on a Starling5 netbook. It's currently the only box I have, as the last of three used ThinkPads in a row went belly-up last weekend. This little machine has done well by me, though it has occasionally has a weird habit of randomly shutting itself off, and though the Sentelic Finger-sensing pad (outside I think of S76's own drivers for it -- I jettisoned Ubuntu early on) is, well, a tool of Satan. ;^)
Since I'm in need of a computer, I considered System76 for a full-size laptop purchase, but ultimately went with another vendor. The reasons aren't really important here -- they have nothing to do in my case with the quality of the company but more in matters of taste and approach and other imponderables. Plus I was curious about the other company's wares. I may well order another System76 machine somewhere down the road. I like the company and wish them the best.
Regards,
Glenn Becker
Re: My experience with System76
I took the plunge and invested $1,700+ on the new GazP8. No regrets. Love it so far.
I'm still playing around and figuring it out, however. For example: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2084956
Thumbs Up System76. Keep up the good work. This is my first ever purchase of any kind from System76. Glad for it, and that's how they earn future business as well.
Re: My experience with System76
I also just purchased a Wild Dog Performance, and I'm loving it ...
Re: My experience with System76
I know that System76 has posted on these boards in the past. I'm surprised they didn't offer any comments here.
Re: My experience with System76
Quote:
Originally Posted by
boogerama
I know that System76 has posted on these boards in the past. I'm surprised they didn't offer any comments here.
We did respond to some of the negative comments, but overall, we wouldn't feel that it would be appropriate to comment here.
Re: My experience with System76
I bought a System76 Bonobo Extreme laptop three weeks ago.
The Good
Customer service was excellent. My question was answered quickly and professionally. I received my order in 11 days. It was very well packed and there was no damage.
My main concern about buying a laptop online was the keyboard. I was afraid I would get crappy, wobbly keys like Dell laptops have. But the Bonobo Extreme has very nice, sturdy keys that are not too hard or too soft to press. I like the backlight feature--it's handy for working in dim light. The only thing I don't like about the keyboard is that the right shift key is small and I keep pressing the adjacent up arrow by mistake. My 2-year-old loves to pull the keys off my Dell and Toshiba laptops but hasn't figured out how to do it on the Bonobo--yet.
The clickpad is huge, but I prefer to use a mouse. When typing I kept accidentally touching the clickpad and moving my cursor. Then I learned online to press Fn+F1 to disable the clickpad. (Careful: I once did Fn+1 accidentally and made the fan go to maximum.)
I upgraded to an SDD and I'm glad I did. The laptop is super quiet and very fast. The screen has no bad pixels. Battery life is about 3 hours. Performance is excellent. Quality and finish are excellent.
Best of all, everything worked well out of the box. I didn't have to do any configuration or setup.
The Bad
There are a few disappointments that are not System76's fault. I cannot use the built-in thumbprint scanner to log in because I chose to encrypt my user directory. The menus in LibreOffice are not working properly. (I see online others are having this problem on other computers.)
The laptop barely fits in the laptop bag. It's such a tight fit the zipper is scratching the corners, so I have to buy a new bag. System76 should offer the option to leave out a bag.
But my biggest complaint is that System76 did not put a picture of the power supply on their website. If they had I might not have bought the laptop because it is ridiculously huge. It's about one and a half times as big as a standard brick and weighs about 15 pounds. The laptop itself weighs 9 pounds. So the combined weight with the bag is over 25 pounds. It's not very portable.
Summary
Overall I'm very satisfied with System76 and my laptop. It was worth the cost and I would recommend the Bonobo Extreme to anyone strong enough to haul it.