Full Circle Magazine FR

What’s the story behind System76? System76 started ten years ago with a goal to make high-quality computers born to run Linux, and that respected the user. The name is based off of the year of U.S. independence, 1776, reinforcing the idea of freedom. It has since grown immensely, now shipping laptops, desktops and servers all over the world, with a great team supporting them. System76 focuses extensively on ensuring its hardware works seamlessly for users and the whole experience feels cohesive. We work to build a complete product, down to little touches like the super key featuring the Ubuntu logo vs the Windows key you see shipping on Linux laptops from other vendors. What made System76 even consider selling hardware with Linux, and why Ubuntu? GNU/Linux and the open source community deserved a high-quality manufacturer. And we believed that the benefits of Linux and the tools it offered were under-served. We also felt that with a strong company and customer support team backing Linux and promoting the open source tools available, we could empower the masses to become the creators of their environment rather than simply consumers. Most importantly, Linux would receive the attention and focus on hardware/software support that it deserved. Red Hat and SUSE were tested, but weren’t adopted due to various factors. A distribution called “Yoper” was almost adopted, but ultimately passed over due to a lack of commercial support. Finally, Ubuntu was selected, although it was decided over the course of a few months. The community, OEM support as necessary, accessibility for non-techies, and the consistent user experience the distro provided, were, ultimately, the deciding factors. Carl has a more detailed blog post about the beginning of the company: http://carlrichell.com/post/2611107120/how-system76-began

Racontez-nous l'histoire derrière System76.

Quand System76 a débuté il y a dix ans, son objectif était la fabrication d'ordinateurs de très bonne qualité faits pour exécuter Linux. Ils devaient également respecter l'utilisateur. Le nom est basé sur l'année de l'Indépendance américaine, 1776, ce qui renforce l'idée de liberté. Depuis, il a connu une croissance fulgurante ; actuellement, il livre des ordinateurs portables, des ordinateurs de bureau et des serveurs partout dans le monde, avec une équipe fantastique pour l'aide et le soutien.

System76 se concentre largement sur son matériel et s'assure qu'il fonctionne sans heurt pour les utilisateurs, fournissant ainsi une expérience dont les sensations sont cohésives. Nous essayons de construire un produit complet, jusqu'à des petits trucs comme la touche Super qui porte le logo Ubuntu chez nous, alors que le logo de Windows figure sur des portables Linux livrés par d'autres vendeurs.

Qu'est-ce qui a décidé System76 d'envisager la vente du matériel sous Linux, et pourquoi Ubuntu ?

GNU/Linux et la communauté Open Source méritait un fabriquant de produits de qualité. Et nous pensions que les avantages de Linux et de ses outils étaient mal desservis. On pensait également qu'une entreprise forte et une équipe derrière Linux qui prônait les outils Open source disponibles, pouvaient habiliter les couches populaires à devenir les créateurs de leur environnement, plutôt que de rester de simple consommateurs. Plus important encore : Linux aurait droit à l'attention et la concentration sur le soutien matériel/logiciel qu'il méritait.

Nous avons testé Red Hat et SUSE, mais ne les avons pas adoptés à cause de divers facteurs. On a failli adopté une distribution appelée « Yoper », mais nous l'avons éliminé à cause du manque de soutien commercial. Enfin, nous avons sélectionné Ubuntu, bien que cette décision ait pris quelques mois. La communauté, le support OEM en tant que de besoin, l'accessibilité pour les non technos et l'expérience utilisateur uniforme que fournissait la distrib. ont fini par nous convaincre.

Carl propose un billet de blog plus détaillé qui parle des débuts de la société : http://carlrichell.com/post/2611107120/how-system76-began

Does System76 have any plans to offer Linux alternatives such as Mint? Or, better still, let people choose a distro while buying. Having a variety of Linux distros for users to choose from was a feature that the founders investigated exhaustively. In the end, they realized that the best way to spread Linux (and FOSS), was to eliminate any potential for decision overload that could occur with requiring new Linux-users to choose among all the different distros. It was ultimately important for System76 to deliver a positive, holistic experience that would represent the open source community in the best possible light. In order to do this successfully, we deduced that one distribution needed to be chosen in order to thoroughly conduct proper firmware testing, support and compatibility for a truly seamless experience. Still, the distro debate is ongoing, and very passionate. Even within our own office, each member of the staff has their own flavor of choice. For System76, our end goal is to empower the maker movement with the highest quality hardware, manage firmware and compatibility testing so that users don’t have to, and grow the network of Linux supporters by introducing everyday users to the power of open source software. Having said that, we are looking at providing all the documentation that is generated whilst we are working on hardware support, device drivers, etc., to our customers and fans. Currently, testing every distro would stretch us too thin. With that documentation, the communities around these different distros could help test compatibility and support. That would allow us to provide a list of distributions that we know are well supported on our hardware. Once that is in place, who knows?

System76, envisage-t-il de proposer des alternatives Linux telles que Mint ? Ou, encore mieux, permettre aux gens de choisir une distrib. pendant leur achat ?

Proposer une variété de distrib. Linux parmi lesquelles les utilisateurs pouvaient choisir était une fonctionnalité que les fondateurs a examinée à fond. Finalement, ils se sont rendu compte que la meilleure façon de répandre Linux (et les Logiciels libres) était d'éliminer toute possibilité de décision à prendre risquant de déstabiliser les nouveaux utilisateurs comme devoir choisir entre une pléthore de distributions.

Ce qui finalement importait à System76, c'était de fournir une expérience positive, globale qui mettrait la communauté Open Source dans une lumière on ne peut plus positive. Afin de faire ceci avec succès, nous avons compris qu'il fallait choisir une seule distribution pour pouvoir faire des tests exhaustifs du firmware, du support et de la compatibilité, pour que l'expérience utilisateur soit homogène.

Toutefois, le débat concernant les distrib. continue et est très passionné. Même au sein de notre propre bureau, chaque employé a son parfum préféré. L'objectif final de System76 est donner un nouvel élan à l'Open Source avec une haute qualité du matériel et des tests du firmware et de la compatibilité pour éviter aux utilisateurs d'avoir à le faire, et de faire croître le réseau des amateurs de Linux en présentant aux utilisateurs quotidiens la puissance des Logiciels libres.

Cela étant dit, nous examinons la possibilité de fournir toute la documentation générée pendant que nous travaillons sur la prise en charge du matériel, les pilotes de périphériques, etc., à nos clients et fans. Actuellement, ce serait matériellement impossible pour nous de tester toutes les distrib. Avec cette documentation, les communautés autour des différentes distributions pourraient nous aider à tester la compatibilité et la prise en charge. Ainsi, on pourrait fournir une liste des distributions qui, d'après les tests, sont bien prise en charge par le matériel. Une fois cela mis en place, on ne sait jamais !

Does System76 intend to open a European/non-US shop(s) in the near future? We don't have any “shops” at the moment, our only physical location that we have is our office here in Denver. This is largely because our machines are custom built to order online and don't warrant a physical location. However, we do ship all over the world and will continue to do so, you can see specifically where we ship here: https://system76.com/shipping Or even sell System76 hardware through online retailers such as Amazon? Selling our products through other retailers, either online or brick-and-mortar, may be a possibility. But we like ensuring the experience is a positive one, and upon buying a machine you have an account with a dashboard that allows you to talk to our team about your device. This is a really powerful tool, that facilitates conversation with our staff, and really makes what has become a real differentiator between us and other OEMs. I would be worried about losing that strong relationship and trust with our customers by inserting a third party there. For folks outside of the US looking to buy System76, what are the implications with regards to warranties, returns, etc? If we ship there (see question about shipping above), then you get the same shake as anyone else who orders. We have many customers outside of the U.S., all over the world in fact. We work very hard to provide the same level of service and support to them as our U.S. customers. We are very proud of all the places we’ve sent System76 devices to, and hope to continue to grow to be able to serve customers in even more places in the years to come. If you want to see if we ship to your country, check out https://system76.com/shipping

System76 a-t-il l'intention d'ouvrir un/des magasin(s) en Europe ou en dehors des É-U dans un proche avenit ?

Nous n'avons pas « magasins » actuellement, notre seul emplacement physique est à Denver, là où sont nos bureaux. Cela est principalement dû au fait que nos machines sont spécialement conçues pour les commandes en ligne et il n'y a pas de raison d'avoir un autre emplacement physique. Cependant, nous livrons partout dans le monde et continuerons à le faire ; vous pouvez voir les destinations ici : https://system76.com/shipping.

Ou même de vendre du matériel System76 au moyen des marchands en ligne, comme Amazon ?

La vente de nos produits par le biais d'autres marchands, que ce soit en ligne ou dans un magasin physique, pourrait éventuellement être possible. Mais nous aimons nous assurer que l'expérience est positive et, quand vous achetez l'une de nos machines, vous avez un compte sur un tableau de bord qui vous permet de parler à notre équipe au sujet de votre dispositif. Cet outil est vraiment puissant et facile la conversation avec nos employées et il nous différencie véritablement des autres OEM. Si on insérait une tierce partie, je m'inquiéterais de la perte de nos rapports avec nos clients et de leur confiance.

Pour des gens hors des États-Unis qui voudraient acheter un ordinateur System76, quid des garanties, des retours, etc.

Si on livre à cet endroit-là (voir ci-dessus), les acheteurs ont les mêmes droits des autres personnes qui passent des commandes. Nous avons de très nombreux clients en dehors des É-U - partout dans le monde, en fait. Nous travaillons dur pour fournir leur le même niveau de service et d'assistance que pour nos clients américains. Nous sommes fiers d'avoir envoyé des dispositifs System76 à beaucoup d'endroits et espérons que nous continuerons à croître pour pouvoir servir des clients dans encore plus d'endroits dans les années à venir.

Si vous voulez savoir si nous livrons dans votre pays, allez voir sur https://system76.com/shipping.

Do you have a team who are always working on the support documentation? What a great question, and well timed too! In the past we have worked hard on providing documentation through many avenues to our customers. But, as of late, we have undertaken a really fantastic project that will not only serve our customers, but everyone in the Linux community. We have been working on http://support.system76.com - which features a number of tutorials, support docs, and articles that I think are great resources. We’re still at the beginning of this initiative, but these docs are open source and you can contribute to them on GitHub, simply by clicking the “Edit on GitHub” button, whilst viewing the article. Also, anyone can create an article, so we are looking for other contributors. We would like for this to be a great support resource for all Linux users, not specifically just System76 customers. Is there a way to chat with System76 tech/reps via the site rather than a phone number? Yes! You can live chat with us through the website at: https://system76.com/contact Any plans to make 13” laptops for us travellers? Both Carl and myself (Ryan) are big fans of this form-factor. Right now I use the 14” Lemur and am in love with it. It is light, powerful, and a really great machine - worthy to tag-along with any traveller (I travel quite a lot between Denver, Kansas City, and various conferences). I would recommend this to someone who wants an awesome travel companion today.

What about docking stations? Not a USB one, but a proper one like Dell/Lenovo do. We are doing extensive testing of USB docking stations for those who already have machines and want to use one. As for the future, we are working on this and I imagine we will have more to say on that front as our next generation of products is announced. We are very aware that many of our customers want this. We hear you, and we are working to make it happen. Does System76 have any plans to make mini-PCs that could be used for TV or desktop use? How mini are we talking? The Meerkat is a very small PC that I use at home for an HTPC (to stream over stuff from my Plex server, as well as online content). It can be mounted to the back of a monitor or a television with relative ease. If you are looking for a desktop that uses the least space possible, go for our all-in-one Sable. It is beautiful, and requires only the space needed for most monitors. In fact, even Mark Shuttleworth has commented on the beauty of the Sable before. What about a phone? Would System76 be interested in making an Ubuntu phone? What an interesting question (grin). We have looked at the possibility of making a phone and weighed doing this a number of times since the Ubuntu touch/phone/personal project was announced. We would certainly like to make a phone, but are watching and waiting for the platform to be mature enough to provide a stable and positive experience for our customers.

Is there anything in the System76 pipeline that you can tell us about? We definitely have some amazing products in our pipeline, but unfortunately we can’t talk about them in detail (yet)! Our R&D department has been producing some really awesome stuff in our new “secret lab”. The end of the year through 2017 should serve to be a very exciting time for everyone who shares our desire for great devices running open source software. So I would ask everyone reading this to pay attention to what we’re doing and follow us online! Twitter: @system76 Google+: https://plus.google.com/+system76 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/system76 Thank you for taking the time to answer these readers’ questions. NEXT MONTH: WIRE DEVELOPERS In case you didn't know: Wire (the messenger which has mobile and desktop apps that can do audio/video calls and text messaging) is now on Linux! https://wire.com/download/ To bring you up to speed (basically a TL;DR): Wire runs on Android/iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux and in most browsers. As mentioned it can do audio/video calls. Even group calls/chats, but most important of all is that it uses full end-to-end encryption! It's also open source with it's code hosted on GitHub. This is where you come in: is there anything you'd like to ask the developers of Wire? Maybe something about privacy, or upcoming features? Even if they use Linux. It's entirely up to you. Email you questions to: ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org and I'll pass them along. For more info on Wire's privacy: https://wire.com/privacy/