Open SUNY

I wanted to call everyone’s attention to System 76 - a company dedicated to open source software. They sell machines pre-loaded with open source software. Here’s a little blurb from their site.

System76 provides and supports Ubuntu pre-installed laptops, desktops, and servers with a commitment to the ideals of open source software. Our aim is to enable consumers, businesses, schools, and governments to easily transition to the world of open source software through world class hardware, software, and support.

Now that I’ve promoted them, I want to point out a concern that I think System 76 needs to address. They need to get their prices down.

I was really excited to learn that they have recently released a 10″ netbook called the Starling. As far as I can tell the hardware/weigh/size/battery/other specs are comparable to the MSI Wind u120 The only real difference is that the Starling webcam seems a bit worse.

That’s not a big deal, as long as you save a lot of money by going with a netbook that comes with Ubuntu instead of XP - This is supposed to be (or should be) System 76’s appeal. Ideally, a company like this that sells a machine pre-loaded with Ubuntu should beat the pants off of a comparable machine loaded with XP.

Problem: The Starling sells for $359 and the MSI Wind u100 is selling on Amazon for $329. I called them to point this out to them. The salesman had me forward him the link to the MSI Wind, and he’s said he was going to get this information to the pricing people straight away. I don’t think this was a blow-off. We’ll see if I hear back from them. I earnestly hope a company like this will thrive.

If they are responsive to information like this, I think they will. I’ll update this if I hear from them.

UPDATE: I wrote this entry just a few minutes after talking with the salesperson. And just a few minutes after posting this, I’ve already heard back from the salesperson. It was just a bit of a follow up with some preliminary thoughts about the price difference, and a note that he was forwarding this along to the pricing people. So far, customer service is great. I hope to hear back from them soon.

MORE UPDATE: I heard back very soon after the previous update from the sales person. He wanted to assure me, again, that he was forwarding this on to the pricing people. (I must say that I’m impressed with response time). He also gave me permission to post some of his thoughts on this. He looked at the link to the MSI Wind u100. We had a nice exchange. I’ll be posting some of that exchange soon.