[kerkeslager]

> I wonder if that's working for them as a core selling point. Does having an open firmware really steer people into buying one of these laptops?

I can only speak for myself, but I was thinking of getting a Galago Pro around a month and a half ago, and got cold feet because it wasn't quite as open as I wanted it to be. I ended up waiting because I don't need a new dev laptop yet.

This announcement has cemented that I'm going to get one, although I'm going to wait for a bit to let their first users of the new firmware work out the bugs. ;) System76 has a really good reputation for QA, so I'm sure it will be a quick process.

It's my impression that System76 is genuinely committed to free (libre) software, but have pragmatically balanced that with a commitment to creating a high-quality product. As other have said, I want a plug and play Linux experience. Ideally it would be completely libre, but none of the completely libre options out there are good enough (particularly, with hardware integration) for me to justify the loss in productivity. This is a good almost-completely-libre option which fits my needs.