Today I saw someone once again trash System76 for rebranding Clevo machines and writing that off as some kind of deceptive business model. Ultimately, they’re not “just rebranded Clevo…”, but even if they were, the ignorant douchebag posting this misguided rant fails to acknowledge that EVERY SINGLE LAPTOP OEM does the same. Yes, HP, Dell, Lenovo - fucking all of them!
The criticism is from two angles. First, Clevo is known for products that are not on the high end of the quality spectrum. They don’t try to be. Which currently is an obstacle for improving the quality of System76 laptops. System76 however has be working with suppliers to increase the quality of the products and doesn’t source everything from Clevo for their laptop lineup. Second, System76 doesn’t have the order volume of other brands allowing them to have more control over what their suppliers will supply while keeping per unit costs low enough to satisfy System76 margin expectations and keeping prices attractive enough to customers.
System76 has been making good decisions over time to address these challenges and produce better value for customers. But I don’t think it’s unfair for people to be critical of the current situation. System76 laptops aren’t cheaply priced so customers should expect System76 laptops to meet expectations in line with the prices. Not everyone will agree that System76 is or can do that with their current product offerings.
Unfortunately, the economics of laptop and desktop retail sales has subsidies from software based services built into the price expectations of customers. I like that System76 is moving against those headwinds. It means that System76 is not making decisions to try to get you to sign up for services and respects that the hardware you purchase is for your personal use and gives you autonomy to use it as you’d like without creating hurdles. But it also means their products aren’t going to be as compelling to those that are willing to deal with hurdles in exchange for lower prices.
Good points on clarifying the source of the criticism and the challenges this company face. We still need to explain why so many people trash System76 with this particular garbage. Other small suppliers face the same challenges, and we don’t see this “just a rebranded …” rant applied to them. Some examples would be Purism, Tuxedo and Star Labs. Why aren’t people trashing these companies with the same rhetoric? If anything they do much less to the ODM machine than System76.
I think System76 has much less of a perception problem than the others. For Purism, I read much more damming critiques like waiting 3 years for your order. For the others, I nearly never read about them unless I go out of my way to find people discussing them. I would say those are much bigger problems for companies to have.