S
System76 Blog
blog.system76.com · Company blog · on HN since 2016
System76, a Linux computer maker, posts about its hardware, firmware, Pop!_OS, and its Rust-based COSMIC desktop environment.
What HN saysCommenters link it for COSMIC desktop progress, Intel ME-disabled systems, in-house manufacturing, and praise its post on age verification.
78HN people shared it
38linked it in comments
61stories submitted
4.8Kstory points
6 months agolast shared
2016people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Cosmic: The Road to Alpha7 people · 90 points · first shared 2024 · 17 comments on HN
- 2Cosmic Desktop: Closing in on a Cosmic Alpha5 people · 75 points · first shared 2024 · 19 comments on HN
- 3System76 is moving product design and manufacturing in house4 people · 617 points · first shared 2017 · 323 comments on HN
- 4Upcoming System76 Cosmic DE, Compositor and Cosmic Text4 people · 3 points · first shared 2022 · discussion on HN
- 5Cosmic DE update: System76's new Linux desktop environment4 people · 2 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
- 6System76 ME Firmware Updates Plan3 people · 703 points · first shared 2017 · 248 comments on HN
- 7May Flowers Spring COSMIC Showers3 people · 20 points · first shared 2023 · 3 comments on HN
- 8System76 Developing “Cosmic” Desktop Environment2 people · 500 points · first shared 2021 · 414 comments on HN
- 9System76 on US Manufacturing and Open Hardware2 people · 404 points · first shared 2018 · 157 comments on HN
- 10Developing Games on Linux: An Interview with Little Red Dog Games2 people · 368 points · first shared 2021 · 238 comments on HN
- 11COSMIC Alpha Released2 people · 272 points · first shared 2024 · 206 comments on HN
- 12Pop_OS 21.042 people · 216 points · first shared 2021 · 165 comments on HN
- 13A Look Back at Manufacturing Linux Hardware2 people · 168 points · first shared 2020 · 56 comments on HN
- 14Making a Keyboard: System76's Approach2 people · 24 points · first shared 2020 · 2 comments on HN
- 15System76 Open Source Contributions to Linux Community2 people · 6 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
rocket_surgeron · 2022-08-09
Any individual can purchase a system intel ME disabled.
Dell, System76, and Librem all sell at least some systems with ME disabled and those are just the ones I can think of without trying.
https://puri.sm/learn/intel-me/
https://blog.system76.com/post/168050597573/system76-me-firmware-updat…
https://m.hexus.net/tech/news/systems/112835-dell-now-offers-pcs-intel…
As far as risk goes, the risk is very small and my personal opinion is that hardware is not worth replacing unless you are worried about being the target of a state-level actor who will spend the resources to gain clandestine physical access to your machine in order to surveil you.
ME attacks require a level of sophistication that is only worth it to a small number of entities pursuing extremely important targets.
syntaxing · 2018-09-27
Kind of disappointing that there is not much details... Does this tie in with their new manufacturing plant in the states [1]? I thought about buying a System 76 laptop two years ago or so. But I hear that there were some problems so stayed away (and that the laptops are just rebranded with additional software work). I currently use a X62 Thinkpad and it's already pretty "open sourced". The schematics are readily available online and the unit works flawlessly on Linux. Best part is that you have to build it yourself! If this new laptop is at the right price point and quality, I'll be pretty interested. It would be pretty awesome if it can be self built.
[1] http://blog.system76.com/post/175995780368/system76-new-manufacturing-…
Quizzical4230 · 2026-04-24
I really liked this post by System76: https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification
al_borland · 2025-09-26
I think it’s related to what is mentioned in this blog post.
https://blog.system76.com/post/closing-in-on-a-cosmic-alpha
> The official release of COSMIC DE will debut on Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, which will be based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Running and testing on 24.04 gets us closer to a final, polished release.
It seems it’s because Cosmic development is being based on Ubuntu 24.04, so it’s more about that base than the date of the Pop_OS release.
bsimpson · 2024-08-27
Interesting to read this in the context of COSMIC, a new Linux shell that just released a blog post celebrating their alpha release:
https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-alpha-released-heres-what-people…
The post hat-tips their "design system" - a term that didn't exist in 99, but sounds like a lot of the same type of work that Eazel would have been going through to invent a core app for a nascent OS.
mtndew4brkfst · 2024-06-25
I'm not closely informed here, especially about Orca, but my understanding is that Cosmic uses or will use AccessKit by way of using the iced crate, and that some of the same developers are contributing to both projects. So it's not totally off their radar.
https://blog.system76.com/post/may-flowers-spring-cosmic-showers
thesuperbigfrog · 2024-06-03
A desktop environment that System 76 is making: https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-the-road-to-alpha
spicyusername · 2024-05-25
It has not. PopOS 22.04 receives regular updates and 24.04 is supposed to release in the fall of 2024, with a major new desktop environment written in rust, Cosmic.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pop_os/comments/1ah339f/comment/koloih3/
https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-the-road-to-alpha
dartharva · 2024-02-18
Better source: https://blog.system76.com/post/closing-in-on-a-cosmic-alpha
Vinnl · 2024-02-18
Huh, I'd swear I'd seen that too, but looking at the alpha blog post [1], they do indeed say:
> The official release of COSMIC DE will debut on Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS, which will be based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Running and testing on 24.04 gets us closer to a final, polished release.
I'm assuming, but not sure, that 24.04 will be released in April, 24, though its version might just be a reference to the Ubuntu version it's based on - it would be pretty quickly after the Ubuntu release.
Although the distinction between "official release" and "final, polished release" might indeed mean that the 24.04 release would still be alpha?
[1] https://blog.system76.com/post/closing-in-on-a-cosmic-alpha
exabrial · 2024-01-14
I wish there was a commercially backed [L]Unix based OS that had a UI as nice as OSX. I would jump ship in a heartbeat. Apple's hardware is just full of whiz bang useless crap that drive prices through the roof.
The closet to fulling my dream is: https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-the-road-to-alpha And I truly hope it works out.
vlod · 2024-01-14
PopOS is here and there are traditional choc-chip cookies still available.
They are also in the process of ditching GNOME and moving to Rust [0]. (For those that get exciting about that sort of thing).
[0] https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-the-road-to-alpha
jdboyd · 2024-01-11
I suspect this is a better URL: https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-the-road-to-alpha
westurner · 2024-01-04
The redox-os post mentions cosmic desktop, and future wayland support, which may now already be almost implemented?
The System76 blog appears to have updates regarding COSMIC DE: https://blog.system76.com/post/the-spirit-of-cosmic-december-updates
Components of Cosmic Desktop Rust-based Desktop Environment: https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch#components-of-cosmic-desktop
cosmic-comp/src/wayland/handlers https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-comp/tree/master_jammy/src/wayland/ha…
Fervicus · 2023-12-15
Link to the actual System76 blog post: https://blog.system76.com/post/the-spirit-of-cosmic-december-updates
commoner · 2023-10-22
Cosmic has fractional scaling. I'm not sure about XWayland compatibility.
> In Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS, you can scale your resolution by 200%, 300%, or 400% to make these elements easier to see. However, you can also toggle the “Fractional Scaling” feature in the Displays settings for access to scaling options in 25% increments (125%, 150%, 175%, etc.). This past month, fractional scaling functionality was implemented into COSMIC DE as well.
https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-skies-of-a-colorado-july-2023
veidr · 2023-07-15
They announced[1] it specifically as a Rust-based, iced-based desktop environment.
[1]: https://blog.system76.com/post/november-at-system76-products-promos--c…
Shared404 · 2023-04-03
I'm in a similar boat and am very excited for COSMIC https://blog.system76.com/post/more-on-cosmic-de-to-kick-off-2023 .
GNOME frustrates me so Pop_OS is the only place I currently use it. Will likely be moving all my GUI Linux boxes to COSMIC once it kicks off.
pqb · 2023-02-22
In terms of packages, Pop!_OS has the flatpak over Snap, which I believe is not installed by default. Their distro is also known for a brand new tiling window manager on top of GNOME [0]. They have also recently made a notable contribution to improving the "Linux on the desktop" experience (e.g. [1]).
I would not oversimplify it as just "repo added on top". For many years we could say the same about Ubuntu and Debian, but I don't agree with this generalisation.
It may walk like a duck, but if it doesn't quack like a duck, it might not be a duck.
[0]: https://pop.system76.com/
[1]: https://blog.system76.com/post/more-on-cosmic-de-to-kick-off-2023
agucova · 2023-02-02
Pop!_OS is much more than just reskinning Ubuntu. System76 is even developing their own Rust-based desktop environment [1].
[1]: https://blog.system76.com/post/more-on-cosmic-de-to-kick-off-2023
mlinksva · 2022-12-27
> picked up by System76
I missed that. Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33066593 and some updates and upstream contributions in https://blog.system76.com/post/november-at-system76-products-promos--c…
donatj · 2022-10-22
Coincidentally, the System76 blog RSS feed started 404-ing about midnight CST last night.
https://blog.system76.com/rss
They don't seem to have a replacement URL up.
anthk · 2022-04-08
>Rust-based GTK+ desktop environment.
Cosmic desktop.
https://blog.system76.com/post/655369428109869056/popos-2104-a-release…
lallysingh · 2022-01-13
System76 isnt making it about the implementation panguage: https://blog.system76.com/post/648371526931038208/cosmic-to-arrive-in-…
A Ctrl-F rust showed no results.
This post's author just likes Rust.
jakear · 2021-12-25
Though the origin of both names is indeed the same: https://blog.system76.com/post/622541723365769216/the-meaning-behind-s…
Thus proving 76 is not the smallest uninteresting natural number.
marto1 · 2021-06-27
While this is true, some devs in the indie community develop on linux[1] so support is there by default. It's also a small(hopefully growing) niche to target Linux as a platform. SteamOS is also a thing, albeit without a solid market afaik.
[1] https://blog.system76.com/post/654884924769370112/developing-games-on-…
paulsmal · 2020-12-04
I’ve tried both. There is no magic except few additional tools to enhance desktop experience like power manager [0] and hi resolution daemon[1]
[0]https://github.com/pop-os/system76-power
[1]https://blog.system76.com/post/174414833678/all-about-the-hidpi-daemon
fullstop · 2020-07-08
Pop!_OS integrates flathub into their "app store" [0]
[0] https://blog.system76.com/post/616861064165031936/whats-new-with-popos…
opencl · 2020-02-11
System76 added a 'HiDPI daemon' for handling mixed-DPI multimonitor setups in GNOME to their PopOS distro, in my experience it works less badly than the alternatives.
https://blog.system76.com/post/168340008923/hidpi-is-released-work-on-…
smacktoward · 2019-02-24
That's true of System76's laptops, but part of their pitch for Thelio is that it marks a shift towards them doing their own design and manufacturing in the US. See https://blog.system76.com/post/179592732883/system76-on-us-manufacturi… for details.