this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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Would not recommend System76. I've had many issues with my machine (primarily software, related to their buggy custom firmware, and Pop!_OS, until I ditched that for stock Ubuntu). Their support has been terrible - rather similar to OP's, actually. I've had the laptop for about 2.5 years, and I'm checking practically daily for something to replace it.
I've had a Gazelle 16 for 2 years now, and while I agree they are not the end-all for Linux laptop hardware, I'm pretty happy with it. I've distrohopped on it quite a bit since I got it, but I mostly run Fedora Gnome on it (running 39 currently), and so fat, everything just works. I'm thinking of buying from a different provider when it's time to change (maybe 2 to 4 more years). Can't speak to their support since mine has just worked since day one and I've had no need to reach out to them. PopOS is pretty good, but it is lacking when compared to Fedora. Let's see what happens when 24.04 comes out with the rust-based Cosmic DE.
Considering that you are not using their software, was the laptop worth the premium you paid for it, vs buying from Clevo directly?
I figured the hardware and software coming from the same vendor would yield the best results, and wanted to support a company that supports right-to-repair, and Linux in general. But ultimately I found Pop!_OS buggy and had performance issues, so I'm not using their OS, and their firmware is causing issues with my SSD, so I'd like to be off of it as well (but was told "there's no process for reverting to the proprietary firmware“ for the specific model I have). I could have bought a Clevo directly, saving hundreds of dollars, and probably had a better working machine.
I purchased it with the intent to use PopOS, and did for the first 3 months, then started distro hopping. I'm a die hard fedora fan, so I just ended up keeping Fedora (I did go back a few times to Pop).
I can't say Pop was ever an issue, it just worked, and my 10 years old daughter has it in her PC and she's very happy with it. But even on Fedora, I feel this purchase was absolutely worth it. I got it with as little ram as possible (8GB) and with the smallest NVMe drive (256GB) and then bought 64GB of RAM and two 2TB NVMe drives. It all came at around 500 dollars in savings when compared with the highest build.
You wonder why I didn't straight up got a Clevo? I'm ashamed to recognize that I never heard of it until a few months after I got my Gazelle. Then there's the fact that they are somewhat hard to get in the US.
All in all, I want to love to another manufacturer on my next purchase, only because I think there are better options than system76, but not because I think they're not good enough or anything.