I have purchased a Penguin desktop from ThinkPenguin for work and I haven't
had any problems with it at all. I think that it would be great to see custom
designed cases and fancy plastic bezels on the thing but I also realize that
there's an expense there and it's hard for a small company to funnel
resources to that type of thing.
Considering that a laptop is something that you travel with and it can take a
beating I can completely understand that you'd want it to hold up better. The
truth is that many companies build laptops that just don't hold up. Apple
does happen to build some damn tough machines but look at the manufacturing
and design resources they have. They also have a 30+ year history in that
business. I've seen countless Dells, HPs and others that just don't hold up
as well as you'd expect them to. And as Chris points out, there's only so
much QA you can do when you're not designing and building these components
yourself.
I can see the strange predicament that companies like ThinkPenguin are in but
I do applaud their effort and software ethics. Even though it is tough for
them to put out products that compete directly with the big players they have
found their niche. Look at what they're doing to free the code for hardware
drivers and firmware. I don't know of any other companies doing that. This
can pave the way for them to build bigger and better things in the future.
I do appreciate that Chris is taking these criticisms and trying to do
something about them though. That is admirable and the right thing to do. I
know that it will make for better products in the future and it will help the
free software community have somewhere to buy systems from when we need to.
