When I last posted a review, it was July 30th, 2011. I talked about my then 3-year old Lenovo SL300 Thinkpad, waxing eloquent about poor build quality and my various travails with running Ubuntu Linux on it's Windows-oriented BIOS. I was looking forward to bidding it and its associated Linux woes adieu, and welcoming the "new" guy, whose arrival I had been anticipating. It arrived the next day - a System76 Pangolin Performance P8, promising an exciting and trouble-free Linux experience.
It was my very first time ordering from System76, a manufacturer I had only recently come to know about at the time. My research supervisor in grad school had ordered a System76 Serval Pro laptop towards the end of my tenure. I guess it was the quirky name that caught my attention - after all, who names their laptop brand "System76"? I humorously wondered what had happened to the previous 75 :) The Serval's design was interesting, with the indented and backlit chicklet keyboard, and so was the System76 website.
The attention-grabber of course was their claim to deliver Linux-only systems, built and optimised to work flawlessly right out of the box - no fiddling with missing drivers, unrecognized hardware, graphics glitches, BIOS incompatibility and all the other woes that plagued Linux enthusiasts like myself at the time who had bought Windows laptops and attempted to run a Linux distribution as the native operating system. The allure of a relatively affordable Linux laptop was an irresistible value proposition, having decided to permanently jump ship from Windows back in 2008.
So having saved up with my first job out of university, I had settled on a Pangolin Performance panp8 model as an affordable choice. I found System76's order process and customer service to be warm, personable and hassle free, happy to answer my long list of questions to satisfaction and give me confidence in their company and product. With that done, had I excitedly configured and ordered a panp8 with the following specifications:
System76 Pangolin Performance (panp8)
- Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit
- 15.6" HD Display with Super Clear Glossy Surface
- 2nd Generation Intel Core i5-2410M Processor
- 4 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 2GB
- 250 GB 5400 RPM SATA II
- CD-RW / DVD-RW
- 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
- Extra 6 Cell Smart Lithium-ion Battery
- No extra AC adapter
- No car AC adapter
- No bag
- 1 Yr. Ltd. Warranty and 1 Yr. Technical Support
The laptop arrived around two weeks later, and I couldn't wait to unbox it:
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| Unboxing the Newly Arrived Pangolin Performance P8 - July 2011 |
From other reviews that I've read, System76 seems to ship their laptops in relatively simple boxes without fancy external decorations or images, which is fine. The laptop was securely packaged in plastic and styrofoam. When unpacked, there was also additional protective plastic sheeting over the glossy piano black plastic areas, as well as the screen. There wasn't a thick instruction manual, just a simple sheet with a welcome message and links to the online form for manuals and help. I was quite happy with that. This was five years ago. Here are some photos of the Pangolin today:
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| System76 Pangolin Performance P8 - External Lid, Jan 2017 |
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| System76 Pangolin Performance P8 - Screen and Body, Jan 2017 |
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| System76 Pangolin Performance P8 - Keyboard & Palmrest, Jan 2017 |
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| System76 Pangolin Performance P8 - Keyboard, Jan 2017 |
Since it arrived over 5 years ago, I'm extremely happy to say that my Pangolin P8 has gone with me on numerous adventures to multiple places, and handled everything I've thrown at it. Beginning with Ubuntu 11.04, it's gone through 5 major Ubuntu LTS OS upgrades without any complaints or glitches. It's still running the original 250GB Western Digital WD2500BPVT-22ZEST0 Scorpio Blue hard drive that I ordered it with, without any failures. I've never had any driver issues. Everything from my HP Deskjet printer to my iPod has been recognized upon connection and worked flawlessly. It still handles playback of large 720p and 1080p video files without any problems. A couple of years ago, I upgraded the RAM from 4GB to the maximum 8GB, that being the only modification so far. The battery is almost dead - it doesn't last more than 45 minutes, so I had recently put in an order for a new battery and plan to install it soon. The piano black plastic is a magnet for smudges and scratches, which would be my only gripe. I wish there had been an option for a Pangolin with a matte body at the time. For a 5 year old Linux laptop, I'm impressed at how it's still able to handle the load it put on it simultaneously - Firefox running 100+ open tabs, a torrent download of the latest Ubuntu ISO, numerous LibreOffice documents open, 2 VirtualBox VMs running and VLC playing a 720p video file, it juggles all of them with ease and room to spare.
Here are some screenshots of how it's handled configuration changes and operating loads over the years:
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| Running 2 Firefox windows with 100+ tabs, Torrent download and Windows XP VM on 4 GB RAM |
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| Running 2 Firefox windows with 100+ tabs and Windows 7 VM on 8 GB RAM |
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| System Test with dual monitors |
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| Recent system configuration and load - Firefox w/ 100+ tabs, music streaming & 720p video playback |
Having read all this, I'm sure you're left with the question:
That's all well and good, but so what? Why bother writing about an ancient Linux laptop with long obsolete specs that probably wouldn't get a second glance on Craigslist?
My answer would be that in a sense, this post is not really about my laptop. It's about the deeply satisfying and happy experience when a company really cares about its customers enough to deliver well-built, trouble-free products that pay back what they're worth several times over. And combines that with a service that's warm, friendly and genuinely caring. Five years ago, to put my trust in a small, relatively new, unheard of manufacturer to deliver a robust Linux system that would perform when I needed it to was asking a lot of someone as cautious and risk-averse as I am. But System76 have proven themselves several times over, and earned my loyalty and appreciation. I'll happily buy another one when the time comes.
It's also about my admiration and appreciation for Linux as both an operating system and within a particular distribution. As a former Windows user who still uses it for work, part of the appeal of Linux was and is its light demands of system hardware, which increases its useful longevity and value for money. It would be inconceivable that my Pangolin would be able to perform at its current capacity with 5 years of consecutive Windows OS and application releases, upgrades, updates and patches. It's why I adopted Linux over 8 years ago, and intend to stay the course for many more to come.
With that said, thank you System76 for a very positive and satisfying experience! Keep up the good work! Over the next few posts, I'll be talking about upcoming upgrades to my Pangolin to keep it going. I also found a higher-end System76 laptop for a steal and just had to get it as a backup. So where there was one, now there are two! :) See you in the next post!
Regards,
The Sage (湯馬士 凱文)
Multidisciplinary, award-winning and intrepid Systems Engineer with business & sales acumen. Skilled systems thinker and problem solver. Achieves win-win solutions and value for all stakeholders.
Interested in applying my skill set to deliver value at the intersection of technology and business.
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