System76 building a brand new laptop, designed in-house
System76 building a brand new laptop, designed in-house
Built at their Denver, Colorado factory. Which is pretty cool.
System76 makes some solidly good computers. I’ve long recommended their desktop machines — especially their in-house designed “Thelio” line — to Linux users looking for a quality, supported machine.
They make well constructed — and well thought-out — Linux-powered towers with cases (and many parts) built from scratch right in their Denver factory. Impressive machines, without any question.
The System76 laptop line, on the other hand, are… to put it bluntly… rather generic. They are nearly identical to laptops offered from other hardware resellers and, while often of good quality, they simply lack personality and originality.
That appears to be changing with the in-development “Virgo” laptop.
System76 CEO, Carl Richell, took to Twitter to show off some pictures of their work-in-progress laptop. Saying:
“Virgo” is the code name for the laptop we’ll manufacture at our Denver factory. This is the LCD “A” panel milled from thin 6061 aluminum bar stock."
Here is the back of the LCD aluminum panel (the top of the laptop):
And, even though you aren’t likely to often see this side of it… here’s the inside of that panel (where the LCD would mount):
The System76 CEO then proceeded to show off a prototype keyboard for their new, in-house laptop design. It appears testing keyboard switches is a high priority for their team… including providing the ability for end-users to change and move key caps on their own.
Which, we can hope, gives us an indication that “Project Virgo” may have a high level of self-repair-ability and modularity (such as what we are seeing with the Framework laptop line).
As to whether these “Virgo” laptops will be 100% made in the USA, Carl Richell had this to say:
“We'll manufacture quite a few parts in Denver but it will also include parts we design that are produced by overseas suppliers.”
As of right now there are a lot of unknowns.
Ship date, size, weight, if components can be user replaced (battery, etc.), what CPU or GPU architectures will be used… more questions than there are answers.
But, considering the excellent work that System76 did with their Thelio line of Linux-powered desktops — and the promising early hints — I’ll be keeping my eye on the progress of “Virgo”.
Custom designed, boutique computer hardware that runs Linux makes me smile.
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Hopefully they soon build a silent all-in-one that you can hang a couple of monitors from