The System76 Galago Pro is a fierce featherweight Linux laptop PC - deanbeeldrer

For most people running Linux on a laptop, chances are they had to go through the religious ritual of wiping Windows and installing the Linux OS. It's a time-honored tradition in the Linux world, but things are slowly changing, with Linux right away coming preinstalled connected some very nice portables. Precedent: the ultralight System76 Bush baby Pro, a laptop that pleasantly surprised me more than at one time.

System76? Never heard of 'em

Traditionally, getting your laptop computer to work with Linux can Be a annoyance. Old ThinkPads are still a front-runner among Linux users for their reliability and compatibility with the Linux kernel. And though modern kernels have come a long way in computer hardware compatibility, sporting grabbing a laptop and hoping for the best can still be a large gamble.

Right immediately, Dell is the biggest brand to create laptops specifically for Linux. I've played with three of its models, and they've all been a rejoice. But Linux is, manifestly, a niche section of Dell's laptop computer business. Not thusly with System76, which is more of a boutique company whose lin is built on Linux compatibility.

Even as boutique PC builders like Maingear and Falcon Nor'-west cater to gamers and enthusiasts in the desktop food market, System76 is doing much the same for the Linux laptop grocery. The Galago Pro is aimed squarely at machines like high-end Chromebooks and laptops same Dell's XPS 13 Developer Edition.

System76's unique approach is evident right from the production packaging. On the outside, the cardboard box the Galago Pro came in looked like one you might arrive from Dell, Lenovo, or anyone else, but inside, the packaging was rather several. At rest were the big foam blocks (of dubious recyclability) and excessive cardboard forms. Instead, the laptop computer was held in situ by a thin film of formative attached to the ends of a piece of cardboard.

Alex Campbell

The minimalist packaging for the Bush baby Favoring will make recycling the box way easier.

The ends of the cardboard were folded behind the laptop computer, creating forc that held the laptop in situ. It's rare to take care sustainability addressed in the tech intersection packaging, so this was happy surprise number nonpareil.

Lovely, lightweight, and full ports

Happy surprisal number two happened when I picked up the Bush baby Pro first. This affair seems lighter than its size suggests. I could feel the cool bear upon of its aluminum body, one of these days part of my brain wondered whether the laptop was about chinchy plastic thing or possibly missing parts.

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The 2017 System76 Galago Pro.

As luminescent as it is, the Galago Pro is actually heavier than its category match, Dingle's XPS 13, weighing 2.87 pounds to the XPS 13's 2.7 pounds. But the Galago Pro is also 1 edge in wider than the XPS 13, with total dimensions of 12.97 x 8.85 x 0.55 inches. So the greater density (mass divided by bulk) of the XPS 13 (with touch presentation) means that piece the XPS 13 is lighter, it actually feels "heavier" for its size than the Galago Pro does.

The Galago Affirmative's weight is also surprising given its specs. The model I tested came with an Intel Meat i7-7500U plural-core (with Hyperthreading), 8GB of Ram down, and a 250GB Samsung SSD.

Alex Campbell

The left side of the Galago Pro has a USB 3.1 Type-A embrasure besides arsenic the audio jacks, powerfulness button, and a slot for SIM card game.

It sports a litany of ports for connectivity: two USB 3.1 ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C (with Thunderbolt) port, a Mini DisplayPort, an HDMI port, a Kensington lock, an SD/MMC wag slot, and separate 3.5mm jacks for headphones and a microphone. Surprise number leash came when I detected that the Galago Affirmative also comes with a slot for a SIM card, and a elastic, low-profile RJ-45 ethernet port. Such Bounty!

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The right side of the Galago Pro has two USB 3.1 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C). Information technology besides has two video output ports (one MiniDP, one HDMI), a expandable RJ-045 ethernet jack, an Mount Rushmore State card one-armed bandit, and a Kensington lock.

For citizenry who do presentations or want to use a desktop screen at their desk, the inclusion of both HDMI and MiniDP ports happening the right position, in addition to the USB-C, is a boom. Zero need for dongles hither. (Unless you inactive need DVI or VGA connectivity, in which case you've been hosed for a extendable time now.)

Sportsmanlike an Intel Radio-AC card with Bluetooth, you can use most Bluetooth mice, keyboards, and headsets without a job. The RJ-45 port—one of the best things about the Galago Pro, in my opinion—means you lavatory exercise a W. C. Handy-dandy ethernet overseas telegram to download software updates in a jiffy. Business organisatio travelers may too distinction that many hotel rooms still have a cerulean Ethernet cable sitting at the room's desk, which will often offer advisable connectivity than sometimes-spotty hotel WI-Fi.

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The computer hardware specs of the 2015 Dell XPS 13 used in our benchmark compared to the 2017 System76 Galago Pro.

That ethernet jack is also a great fallback for users who might get themselves into upset when installing another Linux distro or if an update goes awry. Although the Galago In favor of's Wisconsin-Fi worked just alright, if Wi-Fi goes on the fritz in Linux, information technology derriere exist a big concern if you don't accept any other way to get online.

Alex Campbell

The Galago Pro's handle area is pleasantly devoid of OS or parts decals.

Former MacBook users might find the Galago In favour of's keyboard familiar—black Chiclet keys surrounded by smooth aluminum. A pretty significant bezel surrounds the Galago Pro's block out (the XPS 13's is precise slim away equivalence), but the 13.3-inch, 3200×1000 picture element display has about the same pixel density as the XPS 13, so video display-wise the two are on par.

Computer software

The Galago Affirmative ships with either Ubuntu 16.04 LTS operating theater Ubuntu 17.04. The 17.04 edition features Linux nitty-gritt version 4.10, which has improvements for Kaby Lake CPUs and increased compatibility for certain Wi-Fi computer hardware from Intel. That said, the Ubuntu installation comes with a System76 PPA repository added to the software sources for device-specific drivers. (Dingle also includes a marketer-provided PPA for ironware.) The PPA allows for driver backports for users of Ubuntu 16.04, which ships with the much older kernel 4.4.

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The Galago Pro's system entropy screen in Ubuntu 17.04.

The feel connected the desktop is just about identical to what you'd get with any other Ubuntu 17.04 installation. While the Osmium comes with LibreOffice and Firefox for office and network work right out of the box, I recommend running an update by maiden up Closing and typing sudo likely update and sudo apt upgrade as soon as you hit the background to get the current software versions and security patches.

When IT came to testing the Galago Pro, I had a lot of trouble using the Phoronix Test Retinue (PTS) that I unremarkably use to judge laptops. Several of the tests would bomb to install or install falsely. After trying different versions of PTS too as diverse versions of the someone tests, I identified the culprit: Ubuntu 17.04 ships with a newer version of the GnNU C compiler, known as GCC. For most masses, a newer reading of GCC is a good affair, but the newer version managed to break the older software that is used in the tests. If you're superficial to reproduce these tests, you'll need to put in gcc-4.8 and point to the emblematic link /usr/bin/gcc to /usr/binful/gcc-4.8 (Beaver State similar).

The benchmarks

The Galago In favor of beat nearly every bench mark set by the 2015 XPS 13 Developer Edition. There were two renowned shortfalls: the IOZone test (disk performance) and x264 video encoding. In other quiz, the H.264 decoding run failed because of a software error, thus I'm non going to number that against the Galago Pro. However, given the performance of the 2016 XPS 13, which besides sports a Kaby Lake Core i7 CPU, along with the results of the other tests, IT's safe to take for granted that the Galago Pro's CPU usage for H.264 decoding would have fallen below the 2015 XPS 13's marks.

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In terms of CPU tests that did run, the Galago Pro did quite an well. However, there is one caution to note: The 2015 XPS 13 I tested had 16GB of RAM compared to the Bushbaby's 8GB. Having doubly the RAM can make a big difference in some of these tests. That aforementioned, the RAM in the Galago Pro is more modern, and outsmart out the XPS 13 in every RAMspeed exam trial.

The Linux kernel compilation test took 234 seconds versus the 255 seconds for the 2015 XPS 13. That's an 8 percent improvement over the 2015 XPS 13. Compaction of a 2GB file out using Gzip took 11.0 seconds on the Galago Pro, a 13 percent advance over the old XPS's 12.6 seconds. Encoding a WAV charge to FLAC took 7.02 seconds on the Galago Pro, while the XPS did the same task in 7.65 seconds. That 0.63-second difference, while modest, is an 8.24 percent improvement in performance. Encrypting a 1GB file with GnuPG (GPG) took 7.32 seconds compared with the XPS 13's 8.52 seconds, resulting in a 14.1 percent increase in performance.

Alex Campbell

Alex Campbell

Alex Campbell

In the x264 test, the Bush baby Pro lagged backside the 2015 XPS 13, encoding at 89.1 frames per second compared to the XPS 13's 93fps. That's a 4.18 percent come by performance. Patc the Galago Pro's  i7-7500U is faster than the XPS 13's i7-6560U, the x264 test loves cores and memory, which gives the XPS 13 the butt against.

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In the Unigine Heaven art run, the Galago Pro was nearly along par with the newer 2016 XPS 13. Like both XPS 13 models, the Galago Affirmative is not a gaming machine. There's plenty power to run simple 3D games. Simply you can forget about performin Roquette League along this matter.

In my battery-rundown essa, the Galago Pro managed to survive about 3 hours, 58 transactions when disconnected from the wall. That's not an all-sidereal day life by hook or by crook, but it's enough for stubby jaunts to meetings operating room a writing session in a coffee shop. It's a good bit shy of the XPS 13's lifespan of terminated 6 hours. When questioned about IT, System76 said it's functioning on software to extend battery life-time and optimize the laptop as much American Samoa possible.

Conclusion

Although Dell seems to dominate Linux laptop computer offerings with the weight of its brand, smaller system builders like System76 are out there making great machines. Is the Galago Pro perfectible? No. But it is pretty better-looking, and it has a mess of connectivity for those who really need IT. (That ethernet embrasure is a big plus for citizenry who do a deal of work happening the road and don't care relying on Wi-Fi, or having to apply dongles). That same, the XPS 13 does make a persuasive counter-argument with its touchscreen and longer battery life.

That brings U.S.A to price. As designed, the Galago Pro I tested costs about $1,252. A likewise configured XPS 13 (with QHD touch screen) runs about $1,650. You can do a lot with that $400 nest egg, if shelling life and a touch screen don't outbalance connectivity options. Though I don't recommend using a Personal computer with inferior than 8GB of Aries the Ram nowadays, you can vex a Bushbaby Pro with an i7-7200U, 5GB of RAM, and a 120GB SSD for $950. That's $100 more than Dell's bare-castanets XPS 13 Developer Variation, but the base Galago offers a QHD block out, whereas the meanspirited XPS 13 limits you to a 1080p HD screen.

Fetching all of this into consideration, the Bush baby In favour of is a worthy competitor to the XPS 13 in both capability and Price. The Galago Favoring offers usefulness to Linux users who penury IT, while the XPS offers glossy business styling and a bigger battery.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/406893/the-system76-galago-pro-is-a-fierce-featherweight-competitor.html

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