System76 Transmission Log

3, 2, 1, 0.

Welcome aboard the System

76 transmission Log.

Our broadcast is about to begin.

This is the latest on System 76
computers, manufacturing, and pop OS.

Now for your in-orbit crew.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back to the System
76 transmission Log.

I'm Alex.

And I'm Emma with no voice.

Emma has swallowed a frog.
Ribbit.

So I don't have a voice for this
show, but I'm going to do my best.

How did you lose your voice?

I just came back from the most incredible
scale conference of all time, and I talked

to hundreds of people,
and I can no longer talk.

I don't think I've talked to hundreds of
people in ages, although

the podcast counts, I guess.

It was a lot of peopleing, for sure,
and I loved every second of it.

Well, sucks for all the people
who want to talk to you now.

You're out of voice.
Yeah.

Just going to take a break for a week.

I think that's called a vacation.

A speaking vacation.

We did have a lot of fun at scale, though.

We actually got to hang out with Jupiter
Broadcasting quite a bit

because they had a meet up at this little
taco joint, and it was like two full rooms

of wonderful nerds just hanging out
talking about all things tech and Linux.

We also went to Laser Tech with
the Jupiter Broadcasting group.

I think that was the highlight of the
team's trip was getting to see them and

have that social
networking time with them.

It's always a pleasure with those guys.

It's always a fun time for sure.

Our cosmic demo was a total hit.

I mean, everyone was loving the whole
press the button thing, and the planets

were really cool how it was tied to the
cosmic theming system, and you could see

your colors come to life in a little
universe on the background, and I

think people really enjoyed that.

I thought it was fun to watch people's
faces after they hit the button.

I heard we lost the laser tag war.

I mean, it depends on who
you ask, but yes, we lost.

We lost really bad.
It was like a landslide loss.

There goes my five bucks.

It was really funny because Carl and
everybody were trying to say that the

losing team had to shave their heads
because they really thought

that we were going to win.

I'm really glad that we didn't agree to
that because I would

have a shaved head today.

You would have lost your voice
and your hair in the same weekend.

That would have been really unfortunate.

A very memorable time.
Yeah.

Let's jump into the news
about the Thale Aleomega.

Yeah, let's do it.

We have a pretty mega-centric
podcast for you today.

Thaleomega has been redesigned with cooler
CPU temperatures, quieter fans,

and more room for graphics.

It can now fit a third Nvidia RTX.

So lots of graphics for our AI, machine
learning, deep learning machine.

Very exciting.
I believe it is now on sale.

Scrolling down.

I'll I'll just tell you so you
don't have to keep scrolling.

It's $500 off right now.

So mega is on sale.

It has been confirmed.

It is $500 off.

Got on that now before
the sale ends March 27th.

We have a bunch of products off, actually.

Workstations is up to $500 off.

Desktops up to $188 off.

The lemur Pro is $100 off, and
keyboards are $40 to $60 off.

Lots of spring savings as you
clean house older technology.

Yeah, it's time to hop on that
keyboard savings train right now.

Is that another frog joke?

It was a bunny joke for spring and Easter.

Launchheavy is $40 off, and I think a lot
of people want that keyboard, so

we should tell people to buy it.
We should buy it.

Okay.
That's our spring sale.

In other mega news and in our events
news, AthelioMega is going to be at Pny's

booth at GTC on March 18th to the first,
and it's going to be running a

production environment.

So that includes Blender, OBS, and Unreal
Engine, all tools that work on Linux, and

just to show off the graphics
might of the machine at the conference.

And then at the end of April, April 25th
to seventh, we're going to be

going to LinuxFest Northwest.

Carl hath returned with
a talk about Cosmic.

See how far Cosmic has come?

Talking about
the Cosmic, the progress that has been

made on Cosmic since the last talk
he gave at LinuxFest Northwest.

And then, Emma, we're
hosting a lunch on Saturday.

Yes, with the Jupiter broadcasting folks.

It's been a tradition for the last couple
of years that we've done a nice

barbecue on the Saturday of the Fest.

But if it's raining this year, we might
check the weather a couple of days before

and change it to a different type of lunch
because it was a little rough last year.

But I think it'll be fun regardless
of whatever food we choose.

Yeah, it's always a fun
time with those guys.

If you do want it to be a barbecue and it
is raining, I'd recommend

bringing your own barbecue sauce.

If you bring your own barbecue
sauce, then it's still a barbecue.

Let's go ahead to our interview with Lou.

I'm Luc Morvan.

I'm actually French, 42 years old, father
of two boys, and currently

living in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

What are you currently working on?

I'm probably coming from a It's a pretty
different side of the computer business.

I'm working for a company which is
providing very special leasing services.

We're actually leasing Aeroengines to
commercial operators.

So originally, the company
that I'm working for.

We've been providing such services on more
like a financial service, like financing

aero engines, their expensive assets, and
analyzing them on a very long term basis.

And we're also now supporting shorter
leases, which

probably not aware of that, but whenever
an engine is going for maintenance,

usually a lease engine is required to keep
on operating the aircraft while the

engine is being maintained and overall.

That's the very specific
business that I'm working in.

My understanding is it optimizes the
lifespan of the engine with the costs?

Correct.
That's the purpose of the maintenance.

But what What I've been working on is
basically to provide and to develop a

simulation tool, a simulation program that
is specifically targeting

the lease business.

Therefore, it is a mix of
commercial understanding, so who's

operating what and where and then which
conditions, a mix of the financial money

which is required for
managing expensive assets.

Then, of course, a lot of the knowledge
that is being fed into the simulation that

is actually the technical knowledge around
the engines, what is making them feeling

tired, sometimes quicker than others.

All of that is then being blended together
to provide an estimated time on wing

for a particular engine to achieve.

What do you hope to see from the impact
of the app in the aerospace industry?

The way that I look at the app, it's
something that I don't think currently

truly exists, having certain apps that are
more targeting the the management in the

sense of the CRM basis, managing
the assets when it comes to records.

Some of the ERP system are tailored to
also manage engines, but there is no such

thing that is allowing you
to evaluate the time on wing.

It's also allowing you to evaluate the
value of your engine

based on the internals.

Somehow, I think that this is the perfect
asset management tool

because it's able to provide you with an
estimated value for the parts, but also

for the ability of the engine to fly,
which ultimately is actually the base for

understanding the valuation of such an
expensive asset and to manage it in a

certain lease environment and to project
your cost and earnings from

that particular operation.

What software are you
using to build this out?

I have to say maybe we can discuss a bit
later, but it's pretty basic when it

comes to what I'm using to develop it.

It's Visual Studio The apps are...

There's a CRM that I'm also currently
working on, and that is, I suppose, just

to manage the engines in the sense of
who's offering the engines to the market.

How do you track these opportunities?

What's the status of the opportunities?

And these two apps the CRM and data
simulation tool, they're

all written in Python.

They're actually writing data and taking
data from a MySQL database, and

I'm using the Streamlit library.

I came to the computer world and to the
coding very late, actually five years ago,

and I think that's the reason why I just
wanted to say, okay, it's already

challenging for me to learn Python, to
code in Python, and to actually to reach a

level where I'm able to create the tool
that I wish would have existed when

I started my journey in this career.

And therefore, when it came to the vision,
how the tool would actually look like and

designing that web app, then I said, okay,
what fancy stuff can I create by just

using Python and not having to learn
anything new or not having to go too deep

into new learnings and then stream them.

I thought, Okay, that works
pretty well and it looks okay.

You said you came into
computing five years ago.

Was that when you first started using
Linux or was there- It's slightly after.

I had that very old computer.

I think it was back in 2016 or 2017.

I didn't know what to do with it.

I just wanted to have it in the
living room to play some music.

At the time, of course, we're not using
Spotify and everything was in

a hard drive in MP3 format.

The Windows computer I had was
clearly not up to the task.

It was already starting not
to start properly and so on.

But I would say, typical Windows stuff.

I was looking at other options and I
started to install Ubuntu on it just

to understand how that is working.

I had very, very limited knowledge
and very limited use cases with Linux.

Actually, right after, I think I I
purchased iMac, and that iMac

became the standard family computer.

So my wife and I were
always using the iMac.

Then we moved to Singapore, and I think in
2019, if I'm not mistaken, we had to go

through the Catalina update, which was
then changing the 32 bits into 64 bits.

And that is when something
terrible happened.

I originally purchased the Microsoft
Office Suite as a standalone program, and

that was the 32 bits version
that I purchased.

And then after I did the upgrade with
Catalina 64 bits, that app

was no longer available.

So I just wanted to just
get installed or get the 64 bits package

installed, and it was
not available anymore.

Now it was all under subscription
for yearly subscriptions, I believe.

And that drove me absolutely crazy.

I nuked that macOS, I think, the day
after and I installed Linux on it.

Yeah, that change drove me crazy as well.

Instead of going back to a Microsoft
suite, I ended up using Scrivener.

It's a screenwriting tool, and I think
they have some other layouts as well, but

that's what I use in my personal time.

Yeah, I was outraged.

I was like, How is that possible that I
purchase a legitimate product

and six months later, I have to make the
choice about throwing it in the bin and

not being able to use it anymore
or having an outdated it?

That was That was really painful.

I think it was actually more painful for
my wife because the day after, she had

to use something she's never used before.

It was a bit difficult.

I was distro-hoping a lot.

It was like one day she
would be using Mounjaro.

And the day after it was back to Ubuntu.

And then I think I even put i3 as a...

I call it, I think, that
very-A window manager?

Yeah, the window manager.

Yeah, that was not That was probably not
the right one to install when you want to

federate your family around a proper OS.

I think that's how I
came along with pop OS.

Because I was learning Linux, I almost had
to reinstall every two months

because I was breaking something.

I had sufficient knowledge to break
things, which is to believe that you're

confident enough to go into the terminal,
copy paste comments from the internet

because there's something
that is not working.

Realizing that was absolutely not what was
supposed to be done, and you just broke

it, which is most of the time okay, but
not when you don't have the

knowledge to actually fix it.

So I went, reinstalling distros after
distros, and Then I came across a pop OS.

I think it was probably like six
months later or seven months later.

And that one stayed for probably an
immense six months in a row without

the requirement to reinstall it.

I think it was probably driven by me
getting a little bit more I'm not really

acquainted with Linux, but since then,
it was then always pop OS.

Since then, all the computers are at home.

They're only Linux computers.

I know our engineers, especially,
would be happy to hear that.

Is Piperware how you found System 76?

Yeah, actually, that
was the entry into it.

Yeah, it was working smoothly.

It was very easy to use.

I think it has that very, how do you call
it, probably very pure view when you first

open it and start it, then it's
not overwhelming when it comes to the

windows popping up everywhere or the
amount of options being available.

Everything is available, but
I think it's pretty slick.

That's how I would define it.

And because it was very stable,
then that became the norm.

And when I had then the opportunity to
dump that iMac and actually reinvest that

money into a new device, then I said,
Okay, I think it makes sense that I'm

purchasing a computer which
comes already with Linux.

I think for most of the people using
Linux, they always have that

greater good cause behind it.

So you believe in open source, you believe
in what you call it data, the

fact that you're controlling your data,
that you're not spilling

information over to third parties.

And I thought for me, it was important to
I'm not too sure if that's...

Probably that's the right English
expression to say to put your money where

your mouth is, and therefore to actually
also from a consumer point of view, then

actually start buying products
that are in line with that motto.

Yeah, especially these days with constant
surveillance, basically, when you buy a

computer from the company you buy it from.

It's nice that there's this
people-first system out there.

Yeah, it's basically the
only system you can trust.

It may As I said, I came to
Linux quite late as a daily user.

It was towards the late '30s, and
probably then more towards the early '40s.

It is true to say that it's taking time to
learn something new.

Is it worth it?
Absolutely.

But for me, it's the same
journey that learning coding.

It is absolutely the same logic is that
you want to learn something new and And

you want to do it also either because the
values behind it are in line with yours or

because you believe that this will help
you growing and it will help you actually

learning something new
and keeping interested.

So for me, everything was linked and we
were At the very beginning, also, I was

buying these Raspberry Pi computers and
then trying to do programs

with the kids and so on.

And it's just like you put
a little bit of time into it and then

without even realizing it, then you spend
a lot of time into it because

it's actually fascinating.

And what became clear to me is that with
that Raspberry Pi computer, I was actually

able to do probably
20 times more things than I was able with

the iMac, simply because then you start
realizing that, or you have this GPIOs, or

you can create your own program, and that
program can do whatever

you ask that program to do.

And then suddenly, the weakest computer I
ever purchased was the most powerful one

because I understood how it was working
and what you could potentially do with it.

That was only after a couple of months
using it, meaning that actually in today's

world, I probably still
know nothing about it.

It's a very interesting way to put it, the
weakest computer you own being the most

powerful just because you know how it
works and how to make it work for you.

Exactly.
Just fascinating.

I'm really bragging around with
my data pro, but still, it spreads It's

probably way too powerful
for what I'm using it for.

But when you purchase a computer, you
sometimes close your eyes and don't want

to be too realistic with your ambitions.

There is a level of future proofing, too.

As time goes on, things are more
advanced, take up more resources.

So it's good to have
those on hand for a while.

Absolutely.
I think that's the way I see it.

It may be actually a little bit less
relevant for the Linux device, I tend to

believe that they keep their stability and
their reliability through time

more than any other, actually.

You were talking about
learning with coding.

Is there something you're currently
learning how to do on the data?

Well, recently it was more actually the
integration with the MySQL database.

I think these are the latest updates that
I've done on the CRM side and

on the simulation tool.

Being able to have something something a
little bit more

stable than either the coded lists within
the code itself or even some Excel reads.

So that's what kept me quite busy.

As I said, my level is
pretty primary in a sense.

So it's taking me quite a lot of time to
reach a level where you believe that

you are building the right tool.

If you only focus then on how it looks
like, it still looks the same, which is

somehow driving a little bit my wife crazy
when she sees spending hours and hours.

On the front end, there is
absolutely no difference.

She's like, Was that really required?

Of course it was, because now it's
based on a proper data pick.

What's next for the app?

What are you excited for with next steps?

I think the next step for me with regards
to these two apps is basically to create

just one out of them
because somehow in both apps, you have

the same object, which is an engine.

You have the engine
object created in each.

It's just basically being able to have
that simulation model allocated to the

engine serial number that you've created
through the CRM so that you can actually

manage the commercial opportunities, but
at the same time manage

the simulation models.

That's the next step for me.

I still have to find time to go through
because it is probably taking me more time

than someone else to develop that,
but I I still want to do it on my own.

I said it's more like a
personal sense of accomplishment rather

than truly looking at the end product
and seeing it as a product itself.

It's more like the journey,
and I think that that's what matters.

I started the journey.

I think in my mind, I see exactly what I
want, and I just need to collect the

appropriate knowledge throughout this
journey to be able to reach

that point, ultimately.

Well, we're wishing you the best.

It sounds like a great tool that's going
to populate the industry soon enough.

Thank you for the opportunity.

We're going to play
Emma's Keyboard Antics.

Without looking at the web page,
your eyes need to be closed.

How much does the launch
keyboard cost right now?

The middle one?
Yes.

Let's see here.

Without looking, I know
the launch light price.

Launch price.

I want to say Hang on.

Thinking.

Remembering.

You're thinking too hard.
No.

It is $2.
30.

A whopping $60 off right now.

I was going to do launch Trivia, but I
feel like you might have or might not

have known the answer to that question.

What was that question?

It was the question about the price.
That was the question.

But you said there was another question.
Yeah.

You would know the answers to those.

How many keys does the launch light have?
Launch light?

I don't actually think I know that.

I misinterpreted.
Seventy-nine.

It's 70.
No, 70.

All right.

Good job.
You were close on the whole price thing.

Do I get a participation price?

No, but we should plug the launch one more
time because it is 84 keys of

incredible typing goodness.

You heard it here, folks.

Eighty-four keys, $225.

That's fully configurable.

That's like this number here per key.
All right.

That's our show for today.

Thank you for joining us, Emma.

Thank you for making me a person you can
talk to today after being

outpeopled over the weekend.
You're welcome.

I'll see you next month.

See you next month on the
System 76 transmission law.

Over and out.
Bye.

Three, two, one.

This has been the System

76 transmission Log.

For more inspiration, check out the
website and follow us on social media.

On your descent back to Earth, please keep
your hands and feet inside the

transport beam at all times.

Captain, sign off in transmission.