Ok, so this isn’t going to be a point by point thing, just sort of an overview of my experience and thoughts about this new laptop. My boss and I were talking about getting one of the new mac book pros, but since they are about twice as much as a Linux laptop from System76 I told him to save his money and go with them. I have a mac desktop that I do all my design work with, so running Photoshop or Illustrator on the laptop is not necessary. Its primary use would be programming.

So lets start at the beginning. Ordering was a pain, apparently they had someone commit a case or cases of credit card fraud that required them to take additional precautions. This required my boss to add my address as an alternate to his credit card thus setting the order back by about 3 or 4 days. Once the order was placed, the laptop was supposed to take 6 days to build which ultimately stretched out to about 2 weeks due to some problems in their new ISO (Which I can forgive due to the new release of Intrepid Ibis, I completely understand that they might have problems with brand new software).  Once the laptop shipped, it was delivered quickly.

The first thing I noticed when opening the box is that they do not manufacture or build these laptops themselves. Which is another thing I can forgive, though I do it begrudgingly (because it takes 6 days to “manufacture” the machine). The laptops are made in China which I guess is understandable after having worked in a related field before. I removed the packaging and found an instruction manual that had screenshots from Windows XP in it and found that to be humorous since it was a Linux laptop. I was immediately disappointed with their presentation. Being a web designer first and a developer second, I tend to look at how things are designed and presented. the laptop could have been a little cooler looking, but the disappointment comes with such simple things as their logo on the back of the monitor and the “Ubuntu” key. Their logo appears to be cut (poorly) from something like silver contact paper and stuck to the back of the monitor. The “Ubuntu” key, which I was really excited about (yeah I know that a stupid thing to be excited about but I figured macs have the apple key and PCs generally have the windows key and I wanted my frickin’ Ubuntu key!) This turned out to be a sticker of a pixelated black and white Ubuntu logo cut out and stuck on the key SUPER LAME. If I ran a computer company, I would want all my machines to be visually pleasing from the outside as well as the operating system. There is a reason Apple does so well and its not all because of how cool OSX is. A lot of it boils down to how the hardware looks and the incredible job they do at branding. (imagine if Macs looked like Lenovo machines, they wouldn’t be half as popular as they are.)

My disappointment ends there and I suppose this is the most important part. Upon firing the machine up I found it to be incredibly responsive. With the Intel Core 2 duo processor and 4 gig’s or ram, there is nothing I can do (currently) to bog down this machine. What you get on the machine in terms of the OS is a basic install of Ubuntu with some system76 drivers added and support for a biometric fingerprint reader (which seems to crash on my every time I try to use it… but why would I need a fingerprint reader?). The machine works right out of the box with support for all the hardware and no need to tweak anything. I did have to do a little tweaking to get Skype working with audio in/out but it was minimal and forgivable since Skype isn’t included by default nor recommended by Canonical due to it’s licensing. Overall, this machine is a hotrod I’m very pleased with it’s functionality and responsiveness. Had they taken the time and perhaps invested the money to make the outside match the inside, I would say they have a real chance to compete in more mainstream computer sales, after all why can Apple sell a *nix based system to a mainstream audience. Their success has absolutely nothing to do with interface, the right company can make Linux do and look like anything they want. They have total control. What it all comes down to is presentation and branding. To Canonical, I would say, PLEASE start manufacturing machines yourself that show your dedication to making the best product out there or at least solicite some new manufacturers that can (Although I would buy a Canonical Laptop in a heartbeat if they existed). If you are relying on companies like System76 to market your OS to end users, it’s a dead end road. Now I realize there are crappy lookig windows machines out there and you can’t judge all PC’s by them, but there are really great ones too, just look at the sony vaio’s, look at Falcon Northwest. Also, I realize that I could have gotten a Dell with Ubuntu but there are 3 reasons I did not.

1. They did not have a system that offered the hardware that I wanted.
2. They were still selling machines with Hardy rather than Intrepid (and this might not change until Jaunty)
3. My boss is not particularly fond of Dell.

So there you have it. Overall the system works great but looks poor, sort of like a junky looking car that runs great. If you are one of those people who are not concerned with how the hardware looks (such as a person who may have bought one of the super ugly Thinkpads from Lenovo) then this machine may be perfect for you, BUT if you are a person who wants their computer to look good and run good, buy a mac. I myself have come to terms with the junky appearance and absolutely love the functionality, I would buy another system76 machine if I were in the market for another Linux computer, though once again, I would scour the internet for another manufacturer in hopes that they would do a little better job at presentation.