started galago pro review

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 Dell's Project Sputnik, which is the company's effort to produce "developer" suited laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed, recently expanded its offerings with quite a few revamped laptops in the company's Precision line.
 
-Project Sputnik has done an admirable job of bringing a "just works" Linux experience to Dell Ultrabooks like the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which I've tested three times now. While the XPS 13 is great machine that I would not hesitate to recommend for most Linux users, it does have it's shortcomings. The biggest problem in my view has long been the limited amount of RAM -- the XPS 13 tops out at 16GB. While that's enough for most users, there are those -- software developers compiling large projects, video editors, even photographers -- who would benefit from more RAM.
+Project Sputnik has done an admirable job of bringing a "just works" Linux experience to Dell Ultrabooks like the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which I've tested three times now. While the XPS 13 is a great machine that I would not hesitate to recommend for most Linux users, it does have its shortcomings. The biggest problem in my view has long been the limited amount of RAM -- the XPS 13 tops out at 16GB. While that's enough for most users, there are those -- software developers compiling large projects, video editors, even photographers -- who would benefit from more RAM.
 
 Normally in the Dell line to get more RAM you'd pick up a one of the various Precision laptops, which lack the svelteness of the XPS series, but can pack in more RAM and larger hard drives. Unfortunately the availability of the Ubuntu-based Precision machines has been somewhat spotty in the past. With this latest refresh though that's no longer the case, you can get [Ubuntu-based Precision laptops in a variety of configurations from the Dell site](http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop?c=us&l=en&s=biz).
 
@@ -16,17 +16,17 @@ The machine Dell sent me for testing was a Dell 7520 Developer Edition with an I
 
 The Xeon is the top of the line chip for Precision 7520s, though you can get a Radeon Pro graphics card, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 3TB of hard drive space. The model I tested maxed out the SSD (512GB), but you can ditch the SSD in favor of a 1TB 7200rpm spinning drive and add a second spinning drive up to 2TB in size. Other customization options include a different finger print reader, and an option to have a PCIe drive as the second drive.
 
-The 7520 boasts a full size keyboard complete with number pad, though the arrow keys, page up/down, and home/end keys are all half size keys, which some may find annoying. There's also "nub" cursor controller in the middle of the keyboard, which would be great were it not so stiff. The really brilliant piece of engineers in the keyboard though is the mouse buttons -- separate left, middle and right -- just below the space bar, which makes it possible to, for example, right click with your thumb without ever taking your fingers off the home row or otherwise interrupting your typing. 
+The 7520 boasts a full size keyboard complete with number pad, though the arrow keys, page up/down, and home/end keys are all half size keys, which some may find annoying. There's also "nub" cursor controller in the middle of the keyboard, which would be great were it not so stiff. The really brilliant piece of engineering in the keyboard though is the mouse buttons -- separate left, middle and right -- just below the space bar, which makes it possible to, for example, right click with your thumb without ever taking your fingers off the home row or otherwise interrupting your typing. 
 
-I like this bit so much I've had some trouble going back to my Lenovo, I still routinely tap my right thumb just below the space bar only to fine there's nothing there. That said, I can see where some people might not like this feature since, especially at first, there's a tendency to accidentally hit the mouse buttons when you meant to hit the space bar. In my case it only took about half a hour o typing for that to go away, but it might be worth heading to a brick and mortar store to try out the keyboard before you rush off to order one.
+I like this bit so much I've had some trouble going back to my Lenovo, I still routinely tap my right thumb just below the space bar only to find there's nothing there. That said, I can see where some people might not like this feature since, especially at first, there's a tendency to accidentally hit the mouse buttons when you meant to hit the space bar. In my case it only took about half a hour of typing for that to go away, but it might be worth heading to a brick and mortar store to try out the keyboard before you rush off to order one.
 
 The keys themselves are your basic chiclet-style keys, though as is the case with other Dell laptops I've tested, they manage to have a rather solid, satisfying feeling with a good bit of give to them. If, like me, you tend to pound on your keys like you're still using a Model M, Dell offers one of the better keyboard experiences in a laptop today.
 
 The trackpad is less remarkable, though it's plenty responsive and smooth enough with separate buttons just below it. With Ubuntu's stock trackpad drivers you can configure the trackpad to respond to taps if you don't like the separate buttons, but there is no Apple-style push anywhere on the trackpad to left-click.
 
-For ports the Precision 7520 offers 4 USB 3.0 ports with PowerShare, three on the left side, one on the right. Also on the left is a Thunderbolt 3 type C port, HDMI, and Mini display port connector. On the right, along with the three USB ports, there's a memory card reader, headphone jack and security lock. The back the Precision 7520 sports a RJ45 port and the power adapter port. There's also a finger print reader and an optional smart card slot.
+For ports the Precision 7520 offers 4 USB 3.0 ports with PowerShare, three on the left side, one on the right. Also on the left is a Thunderbolt 3 type C port, HDMI, and Mini display port connector. On the right, along with the three USB ports, there's a memory card reader, headphone jack and security lock. The back of the Precision 7520 sports a RJ45 port and the power adapter port. There's also a fingerprint reader and an optional smart card slot.
 
-The case of the Precision 7520 is a somewhat soft dark finish. It looks nice, but it does show fingerprints quite a bit. The body is build around a very sturdy metal chassis that doesn't flex much, even when you carry it open with one hand, which you shouldn't do because this thing is pretty heavy. It's not off the charts but at around six and half pounds (exact weight varies according to customizations) it's definitely a two hander, at least when it's open. It's worth noting though that the hinge is quite smooth and opening it up with one hand isn't difficult.
+The case of the Precision 7520 is a somewhat soft dark finish. It looks nice, but it does show fingerprints quite a bit. The body is built around a very sturdy metal chassis that doesn't flex much, even when you carry it open with one hand, which you shouldn't do because this thing is pretty heavy. It's not off the charts but at around six and half pounds (exact weight varies according to customizations) it's definitely a two hander, at least when it's open. It's worth noting though that the hinge is quite smooth and opening it up with one hand isn't difficult.
 
 The Precision 7520 is just under 15in wide, 10.38 inches deep and a little over an inch thick, tapering from the back to front. In other words it's neither a massive beast, nor the most svelte thing on the market. Personally, the extra bulk is nothing compared to the power gained by having the bulk.
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ The last hardware bit of note is the screen, which offers 3840x2160 pixel resolu
 
 ## Software
 
-As with the rest of Dell's Sputnik offerings the Precision 7520 Developer Edition ships with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. That'll be the base of Dell's machines for the next few years at a minimum despite the fact that, in the midst of my testing, Ubuntu announced it would no longer develop the unity interface that has been its default desktop since 2010. More on the demise of Unity in a minute, but for now it's worth pointing out that the combination of screen size and hardware specs of the Precision 7520 make for the best Unity machine I've ever used, period. 
+As with the rest of Dell's Sputnik offerings the Precision 7520 Developer Edition ships with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. That'll be the base of Dell's machines for the next few years at a minimum despite the fact that, in the midst of my testing, Ubuntu announced it would no longer develop the Unity interface that has been its default desktop since 2010. More on the demise of Unity in a minute, but for now it's worth pointing out that the combination of screen size and hardware specs of the Precision 7520 make for the best Unity machine I've ever used, period. 
 
 Ironically, just when I was thinking, hey, Unity isn't so bad on a nice big screen with plenty of RAM to spare, Canonical announced it was stopping the development of Unity and would adopt a mostly stock GNOME interface for future releases. 
 
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@ Of course there's nothing stopping you from updating your system yourself, or in
 
 That's not to say that Unity is abandonware. It will live on in the Universe repos for anyone who'd like to continue using it and it's certainly alive and well in Dell machines. If you're fond of the Unity interface there's no need to panic just yet, you'll be able to continue using it for quite a while. There have already been stirrings of a community around it that would like to continue development. Even if there are just a couple of people fixing bugs and keeping the lights on you should be able to get a good five more years out of it (Canonical is committed to maintaining for the five year release cycle of 16.04, which lasts until April of 2021). 
 
-Still, I tested Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 quite extensively and didn't run into any problems at all, hardware or otherwise. In fact the near stock GNOME that ships with Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 looks really nice on the HiDPI screen. There's even some nice tools starting to emerge that add some of the best features of Unity to GNOME. For example, [this GNOME extension](https://github.com/ElectricPrism/gnome-hud-menu) takes the idea of Unity's HUD menu (a search interface for application menu items) and uses the very fast dmenu to get the same functionality in GNOME. As an added bonus, dmenu is even faster and more responsive than Unity's HUD, albeit not quite as pretty to look at. I should also note that it doesn't work with Firefox or Chromium.
+Jared Domínguez, Software Principal Engineer at Dell, says "Dell has been working with Canonical on Unity transition plans." For those buying a 7520 (or other Dell with Ubuntu install) Dominquez says, "we understand the need to keep a consistent experience, especially considering the large corporate Ubuntu desktop deployments that depend on Dell". He goes on to add that, once GNOME starts shipping by default on Ubuntu, "I personally anticipate that everyone will benefit from the combined GNOME effort of Canonical and Red Hat on Ubuntu and RHEL, both of which we ship."
+
+I went ahead and tested Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 quite extensively and didn't run into any problems at all, hardware or otherwise. In fact the near stock GNOME that ships with Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 looks really nice on the HiDPI screen. There's even some nice tools starting to emerge that add some of the best features of Unity to GNOME. For example, [this GNOME extension](https://github.com/ElectricPrism/gnome-hud-menu) takes the idea of Unity's HUD menu (a search interface for application menu items) and uses the very fast dmenu to get the same functionality in GNOME. As an added bonus, dmenu is even faster and more responsive than Unity's HUD, albeit not quite as pretty to look at. I should also note that it doesn't work with Firefox or Chromium.
 
 There are also quite a few GNOME themes out there, which, in conjunction with GNOME Shell extensions, can do an admirable job of impersonating the Unity desktop in both function and form. It's worth noting too that Ubuntu hasn't formally released a GNOME version just yet, it may well ship with some customizations to make the transition from Unity to GNOME a little easier on users.
 
@@ -58,10 +60,27 @@ Perhaps the best comparison machine to the Precision 7520 is System76's Oryx Pro
 
 ## Overall Impressions
 
-I enjoyed my time with the Dell Precision 7520 and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone that needs the power. That said, if your primary use case is browsing the web, chat/Skype, light photo editing, etc, then this thing is way over kill. If you don't need the power it's hard to justify the additional size and weight over the XPS developer edition line. On the other hand, if the XPS machines have always left you feeling underpowered, the Precision 7520 is for you.
+I enjoyed my time with the Dell Precision 7520 and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone that needs the power. That said, if your primary use case is browsing the web, chat/Skype, light photo editing, etc, then this thing is way overkill. If you don't need the power it's hard to justify the additional size and weight over the XPS developer edition line. On the other hand, if the XPS machines have always left you feeling underpowered, the Precision 7520 is for you.
 
-And now it's time for my biggest gripe with this machine: The battery life sucks. As Confucious once said, with great power comes crappy battery life. That's certainly the case with the 7520, which manages to eek out about fours hours doing light duty web browsing and the like, but quickly drops off to less than two if you start pushing it. 
+And now it's time for my biggest gripe with this machine: The battery life sucks. As Confucious once said, with great power comes crappy battery life. That's certainly the case with the 7520, which manages to eke out about fours hours doing light duty web browsing and the like, but quickly drops off to less than two if you start pushing it. 
 
 Given the size and weight, along with the battery life, suffice to say that the happiest Dell Precision 7520 user will be the one that primarily has it sitting on a desk at home or work and only occasionally ventures out to tax the battery. The more you leave this on the desk -- chained to a couple 4K displays via Dell's  Thunderbolt docking station would be nice -- the more your back will thank you anyway.
 
 
+
+The Good
+
+    Trouble-free Linux on good hardware
+    Excellent screen with great resolution
+    Plenty of RAM to handle whatever you throw at it
+    Price is competitive for the hardware you get
+
+The Bad
+
+    Screen resolution of HiDPI models can cause problems with some apps
+    It's not the lightest thing around
+    Charger is also quite large
+
+The Ugly
+
+    It's not Dell's fault, but if you stick with Ubuntu, eventually you're going to wake up one day to GNOME rather than Unity.
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+<p>Dell's Project Sputnik, which is the company's effort to produce &quot;developer&quot; suited laptops with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed, recently expanded its offerings with quite a few revamped laptops in the company's Precision line.</p>
+<p>Project Sputnik has done an admirable job of bringing a &quot;just works&quot; Linux experience to Dell Ultrabooks like the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which I've tested three times now. While the XPS 13 is a great machine that I would not hesitate to recommend for most Linux users, it does have its shortcomings. The biggest problem in my view has long been the limited amount of RAM -- the XPS 13 tops out at 16GB. While that's enough for most users, there are those -- software developers compiling large projects, video editors, even photographers -- who would benefit from more RAM.</p>
+<p>Normally in the Dell line to get more RAM you'd pick up a one of the various Precision laptops, which lack the svelteness of the XPS series, but can pack in more RAM and larger hard drives. Unfortunately the availability of the Ubuntu-based Precision machines has been somewhat spotty in the past. With this latest refresh though that's no longer the case, you can get <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=biz">Ubuntu-based Precision laptops in a variety of configurations from the Dell site</a>.</p>
+<p>Dell isn't the only manufacturer producing great Linux machines. And in fact the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/system76-oryx-pro-review-linux-in-a-laptop-has-never-been-better/">Oryx Pro</a> from System 76 is another great machine, and my previous recommendation for anyone who needed more RAM and didn't mind the additional size and weight.</p>
+<p>Naturally Linux will probably work just fine on plenty of hardware not specifically tailored to running Linux, but if you want a &quot;just works&quot; experience I'd suggest staying away from bleeding edge hardware, which sometimes lacks drivers (or stick with a bleeding edge distro like Arch). That's where efforts like Dell's Project Sputnik come in handy, the hardware is already vetted, the drivers pre-installed and configured for a great out of the box experience.</p>
+<p>And now, with the revamped Sputnik lineup you can get your just works Linux rig and all the power and RAM of a bigger laptop in the form of the Dell Precision 7520.</p>
+<h2 id="hardware">Hardware</h2>
+<p>The machine Dell sent me for testing was a Dell 7520 Developer Edition with an Intel Xeon E3-1505M v6 (Quad Core Xeon 3.00GHz, 4.00GHz Turbo, 8MB 45W, w/Intel HD Graphics 630), 32 GB RAM, 512 GB of SSD space, an NVIDIA Quadro M2200 w/4GB GDDR5 graphics card, and a brilliant 15.6&quot; UHD IGZO (3840x2160) LED-backlit non-touch screen.</p>
+<p>The Xeon is the top of the line chip for Precision 7520s, though you can get a Radeon Pro graphics card, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 3TB of hard drive space. The model I tested maxed out the SSD (512GB), but you can ditch the SSD in favor of a 1TB 7200rpm spinning drive and add a second spinning drive up to 2TB in size. Other customization options include a different finger print reader, and an option to have a PCIe drive as the second drive.</p>
+<p>The 7520 boasts a full size keyboard complete with number pad, though the arrow keys, page up/down, and home/end keys are all half size keys, which some may find annoying. There's also &quot;nub&quot; cursor controller in the middle of the keyboard, which would be great were it not so stiff. The really brilliant piece of engineering in the keyboard though is the mouse buttons -- separate left, middle and right -- just below the space bar, which makes it possible to, for example, right click with your thumb without ever taking your fingers off the home row or otherwise interrupting your typing.</p>
+<p>I like this bit so much I've had some trouble going back to my Lenovo, I still routinely tap my right thumb just below the space bar only to find there's nothing there. That said, I can see where some people might not like this feature since, especially at first, there's a tendency to accidentally hit the mouse buttons when you meant to hit the space bar. In my case it only took about half a hour of typing for that to go away, but it might be worth heading to a brick and mortar store to try out the keyboard before you rush off to order one.</p>
+<p>The keys themselves are your basic chiclet-style keys, though as is the case with other Dell laptops I've tested, they manage to have a rather solid, satisfying feeling with a good bit of give to them. If, like me, you tend to pound on your keys like you're still using a Model M, Dell offers one of the better keyboard experiences in a laptop today.</p>
+<p>The trackpad is less remarkable, though it's plenty responsive and smooth enough with separate buttons just below it. With Ubuntu's stock trackpad drivers you can configure the trackpad to respond to taps if you don't like the separate buttons, but there is no Apple-style push anywhere on the trackpad to left-click.</p>
+<p>For ports the Precision 7520 offers 4 USB 3.0 ports with PowerShare, three on the left side, one on the right. Also on the left is a Thunderbolt 3 type C port, HDMI, and Mini display port connector. On the right, along with the three USB ports, there's a memory card reader, headphone jack and security lock. The back of the Precision 7520 sports a RJ45 port and the power adapter port. There's also a fingerprint reader and an optional smart card slot.</p>
+<p>The case of the Precision 7520 is a somewhat soft dark finish. It looks nice, but it does show fingerprints quite a bit. The body is built around a very sturdy metal chassis that doesn't flex much, even when you carry it open with one hand, which you shouldn't do because this thing is pretty heavy. It's not off the charts but at around six and half pounds (exact weight varies according to customizations) it's definitely a two hander, at least when it's open. It's worth noting though that the hinge is quite smooth and opening it up with one hand isn't difficult.</p>
+<p>The Precision 7520 is just under 15in wide, 10.38 inches deep and a little over an inch thick, tapering from the back to front. In other words it's neither a massive beast, nor the most svelte thing on the market. Personally, the extra bulk is nothing compared to the power gained by having the bulk.</p>
+<p>The Xeon processor in the machine I tested handled everything I ever threw at it without breaking a sweat. I was able to edit through, color, and render a backlog of video editing that I had been dreading trying to do on my i5 8GB Lenovo (yes I'm one of those weirdos that edits video using FOSS software on Linux).</p>
+<p>What would have been hours of rendering time on the Lenovo took, by comparison, hardly any time at all on the Dell. I crunched through several hours worth of footage, compiled and rendered out my edits and the Dell hardly even spun up its fans. A note on those fans though: they didn't run very often in normal use, but when I pushed it they did kick in and they're not the quietest things around. They did, however, do an excellent job of keeping things cool even when I was rendering video while sitting in the afternoon sun while camping in Louisiana swamps in June. I should note here that while the model I tested had 32GB of RAM, you can, for a price, push that up to 64GB of RAM.</p>
+<p>The last hardware bit of note is the screen, which offers 3840x2160 pixel resolution in a 15.6 inch package. The screen itself looks amazing and I found the color rendering to be excellent, especially with regard to nice, deep blacks. Unfortunately some Linux apps -- GIMP I'm looking at you -- have really poor HiDPI support. The HiDPI support is getting better, certainly Unity itself is almost flawless, as is GNOME, which I also tested, more on that in a minute, but there are enough apps that have tiny, illegible UIs on a HiDPI screen that it's worth double checking to make sure all your favorites work before you spend the money on the high end screen. The Precision 7520 can also be configured to use 1920x1080 IPS screen for those that don't want to mess with the HiDPI version.</p>
+<h2 id="software">Software</h2>
+<p>As with the rest of Dell's Sputnik offerings the Precision 7520 Developer Edition ships with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. That'll be the base of Dell's machines for the next few years at a minimum despite the fact that, in the midst of my testing, Ubuntu announced it would no longer develop the Unity interface that has been its default desktop since 2010. More on the demise of Unity in a minute, but for now it's worth pointing out that the combination of screen size and hardware specs of the Precision 7520 make for the best Unity machine I've ever used, period.</p>
+<p>Ironically, just when I was thinking, hey, Unity isn't so bad on a nice big screen with plenty of RAM to spare, Canonical announced it was stopping the development of Unity and would adopt a mostly stock GNOME interface for future releases.</p>
+<p>Since Dell ships with LTS releases, the earliest you'll likely see GNOME on a Dell machine is 18.04, which will arrive in April 2018 and, given adoption time in the past, won't likely ship with Dell hardware until 2019. That might be slightly disappointing to those who want bleeding edge software, but it's the main reason Dell machines don't have hardware issues. It takes time to test and fix bugs.</p>
+<p>Of course there's nothing stopping you from updating your system yourself, or installing any other distro you might like. I stuck with Ubuntu on this machine though in the past I have run Fedora, Arch and Mint on Dell machines without encountering any problems (quite a few Fedora developers seem to use XPS 13s so fixes for Dell specific issues seem to get pushed out very quickly in Fedora). This time around I wanted to spend some time with Ubuntu GNOME on high end hardware, since that will, like it or not, be the future of the Ubuntu Desktop.</p>
+<p>That's not to say that Unity is abandonware. It will live on in the Universe repos for anyone who'd like to continue using it and it's certainly alive and well in Dell machines. If you're fond of the Unity interface there's no need to panic just yet, you'll be able to continue using it for quite a while. There have already been stirrings of a community around it that would like to continue development. Even if there are just a couple of people fixing bugs and keeping the lights on you should be able to get a good five more years out of it (Canonical is committed to maintaining for the five year release cycle of 16.04, which lasts until April of 2021).</p>
+<p>Jared Domínguez, Software Principal Engineer at Dell, says &quot;Dell has been working with Canonical on Unity transition plans.&quot; For those buying a 7520 (or other Dell with Ubuntu install) Dominquez says, &quot;we understand the need to keep a consistent experience, especially considering the large corporate Ubuntu desktop deployments that depend on Dell&quot;. He goes on to add that, once GNOME starts shipping by default on Ubuntu, &quot;I personally anticipate that everyone will benefit from the combined GNOME effort of Canonical and Red Hat on Ubuntu and RHEL, both of which we ship.&quot;</p>
+<p>I went ahead and tested Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 quite extensively and didn't run into any problems at all, hardware or otherwise. In fact the near stock GNOME that ships with Ubuntu GNOME 17.04 looks really nice on the HiDPI screen. There's even some nice tools starting to emerge that add some of the best features of Unity to GNOME. For example, <a href="https://github.com/ElectricPrism/gnome-hud-menu">this GNOME extension</a> takes the idea of Unity's HUD menu (a search interface for application menu items) and uses the very fast dmenu to get the same functionality in GNOME. As an added bonus, dmenu is even faster and more responsive than Unity's HUD, albeit not quite as pretty to look at. I should also note that it doesn't work with Firefox or Chromium.</p>
+<p>There are also quite a few GNOME themes out there, which, in conjunction with GNOME Shell extensions, can do an admirable job of impersonating the Unity desktop in both function and form. It's worth noting too that Ubuntu hasn't formally released a GNOME version just yet, it may well ship with some customizations to make the transition from Unity to GNOME a little easier on users.</p>
+<p>Whether you opt to stick with Ubuntu 16.04 as it ships with the Precision 7520, upgrade to 17.04. switch to Ubuntu GNOME, or use an entirely different distro, you're unlikely to encounter any issues with the hardware. That's part of what you're paying for when you get the Precision 7520 and yes, there are some cheaper options out there, but few, if any, will work as flawlessly as the Dell.</p>
+<p>Perhaps the best comparison machine to the Precision 7520 is System76's Oryx Pro, which I reviewed last year. The Oryx Pro has since been updated and you can configure it to more or less match the Dell Precision 7520. The Dell has the Oryx Pro beat on size and weight, though not by much. On the other hand the Oryx Pro can (for an additional price) pack in up to 6TB of drive space. Both are great machines, which is better suited to you is really something too personal to generalize into a recommendation. Based on my experience you won't be disappointed by either.</p>
+<h2 id="overall-impressions">Overall Impressions</h2>
+<p>I enjoyed my time with the Dell Precision 7520 and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone that needs the power. That said, if your primary use case is browsing the web, chat/Skype, light photo editing, etc, then this thing is way overkill. If you don't need the power it's hard to justify the additional size and weight over the XPS developer edition line. On the other hand, if the XPS machines have always left you feeling underpowered, the Precision 7520 is for you.</p>
+<p>And now it's time for my biggest gripe with this machine: The battery life sucks. As Confucious once said, with great power comes crappy battery life. That's certainly the case with the 7520, which manages to eke out about fours hours doing light duty web browsing and the like, but quickly drops off to less than two if you start pushing it.</p>
+<p>Given the size and weight, along with the battery life, suffice to say that the happiest Dell Precision 7520 user will be the one that primarily has it sitting on a desk at home or work and only occasionally ventures out to tax the battery. The more you leave this on the desk -- chained to a couple 4K displays via Dell's Thunderbolt docking station would be nice -- the more your back will thank you anyway.</p>
+<p>The Good</p>
+<pre><code>Trouble-free Linux on good hardware
+Excellent screen with great resolution
+Plenty of RAM to handle whatever you throw at it
+Price is competitive for the hardware you get</code></pre>
+<p>The Bad</p>
+<pre><code>Screen resolution of HiDPI models can cause problems with some apps
+It&#39;s not the lightest thing around
+Charger is also quite large</code></pre>
+<p>The Ugly</p>
+<pre><code>It&#39;s not Dell&#39;s fault, but if you stick with Ubuntu, eventually you&#39;re going to wake up one day to GNOME rather than Unity.</code></pre>
diff --git a/galaga-pro-review.txt b/galaga-pro-review.txt
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+Wiping the default operating system from your laptop and plugging in a USB stick with your favorite distro's live CD has long been one of the great rites of passage of the Linux world. Some of us get a little, dare I say giddy, every time we wipe that other OS away and see that first flash of GRUB. Of course rites of passage are supposed to be one time events. Once you've wiped Windows or OS X a time or two most of no longer have that giddiness -- it becomes one more annoyance, a kind of tax on Linux users.
+
+In recent years the PC industry has finally spawned a few manufacturers offering up machines with Linux pre-installed and at this point I have tested most of them. Dell's XPS and Precision lines both have Linux-friendly offerings and dedicated Linux manufacturers like System76 have long offered decent hardware with Linux pre-installed. In all my testing of various models from four different manufacturers I've yet to encounter a driver problem, which is the real benefit of a machine with Linux pre-installed. To be fair, I could say the same for the Lenovo x240 that serves as my daily driver.
+
+Still, finding the perfect Linux laptop has always been something of a Goldilocks problem -- this one is too big, this one is too underpowered, this one has too little RAM, this one lacks a big SSD and so on. Generally speaking if you want power and storage you're going to end up with something too big to comfortable throw in a bag and carry all day -- the Dell Precision 7520 and the System76 Oryx Pro are good examples of this. 
+
+Alternately you could go for the more portable Dell XPS 13 or System76 Lemur, which both offer a more svelte, lightweight machine that's easier on your shoulders, but is generally lacking in RAM and drive space.
+
+What Linux users like myself have long wanted is a laptop with roughly the form factor and weight of a Macbook pro, but with the option to get 32GB of RAM or three TB of storage. A laptop that is both reasonably lightweight and powerful.
+
+And that my fellow Linux users, is exactly what System76 has managed to deliver with its new Galago Pro laptop.
+
+It's not perfect, but this is a very clever, very well designed piece of hardware with some very impressive specs. 
+
+The model I tested featured the faster 7th Gen Intel i7-7500U (also avaolable with an i5 for slightly less), 250 GB Samsung 960 EVO NVMe, 8GB RAM (Dual Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz), a 250GB Samsung 960 EVO NVMe SSD and a 13.3″ 3K HiDPI screen with an Intel HD Graphics 620 card. As spec'ed the Galago Pro I tested would set you back $1,328.
+
+# Hardware and Design.
+
+The Galago Pro features an all-aluminium body that looks and feels a bit like a Macbook Pro, but without the wrist-cutting sharp edges of the Macbook Pro. It's a slick piece of hardware and it's light, weighing in at a mere 2.87lbs. In fact it's difficult to convey just how maazingly light this thing is. My Lenovo x240 isn't exactly a beast, but after carting around the Galago Pro for a few weeks the Lenovo started to seem a bit more brick-like.
+
+Around the outside of the Galago Pro you'll find the usual array of ports, including one USB-C with Thunderbolt, two USB 3.1 ports, an SD Card Reader, and, for additional displays there's an HDMI as well as MiniDP/USB-C. System76 also bucks a current trend by including an actual Ethernet port, which also features a little door that holds the cable in place. If you're a regular user of hotel wifi you know how valuable an Ethernet jack can be. There's also a slot for a SIM card.
+
+The keyboard is reminecent of the Dell XPS 13 -- black Chiclet keys surrounded by smooth a aluminum frame. The travel is okay, on par with the rest of the laptops out there that sport similar keyboards (like the Macbook Pro). I happen to prefer the spongier, closer-to-clakkity keyboards Lenovo uses, but judging by the market I am not in the majority there. 
+
+Once place the Galago Pro differs significantly from both the XPS 13 line and MAcbook Pros is the bezel that surrounds the Galago Pro's screen -- it's big. The display itself is more or less the same though, the 13.3-inch screen packs in 3200x1800 pixels. As with the Dell there are some Linux apps where the HiDPI screen is more of a hindrance than a help (I'm looking at you GiMP). Color wise the screen is quite nice and renders true blacks pretty well. It's also nicely backlit and it works out of the box in Ubuntu
+
+The i7 That ships with the Galago Pro is the latest of the Kaby Lake versions and for that reason I strongly recommend ordering your Galago Pro with Ubuntu 17.04, which features a newer Linux kernel with much better ssupport for Kaby Lake. 
+
+Another point that sometimes gets glossed over in reviews is that the Galago Pro is very user servicable. I couldn't find any disassembly guides on System76's website, but a quick YouTube search will get you a couple videos. It's pretty simple, just lift up the keyboard, detach the cable, unscrew three screws and then flip it over and unscrew everything from the bottom and you'll have access to the insides. You can swap out both drives and the RAM if you decided to upgrade down the road.
+
+So far so good, but like I said the Galago Pro is not perfect and it's biggest failing is battery life. In normal use (wifi and bluetooth on, screen at 80 percent brightness and using Vim for writing, Firefox for browsing the web and mpd for music I only got about 3.5 hours out of the battery. That was using the stock Ubuntu as shipped. When I wiped that, installed Arch Linux, just used Openbox with tint2 and installed TLP I managed to get one more hour out if it. Still not great, but better. Suffice to say that this is not an all day without a cord sort of laptop. On the plus side the charger and cord are quite small and light. 
+
+Another thing I disliked about the Galago Pro was the trackpad. It wasn't the worst I've ever used (pick any Chromebook to experience the worst trackpad ever), but I was plagued by jittery cursor movements and occasional moments where it would be totally unresponsive. Another downside -- the fan is pretty loud and it will kick in pretty much any time you spike the CPU to 100 percent. 
+
+None of the issues I experienced are what I would call deal breakers, except perhaps the battery, I really wish the battery life was closer to the Dell XPS 13, which pretty consistently lasted seven or eight hours in all my informal tests.
+
+# Software 
+
+As it has for some time, System76 is currently shipping the Galago Pro with either Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or the more recent 17.04. As mentioned above, I would strongly suggest you go with the latter as the updated kernel has better support for the hardware in the Galago Pro, though System76 includes its own repositories with additional software designed to make everything work smoothly. 
+
+Of course, as I noted when I reviewed Ubuntu 17.04, the Unity desktop that System76 is currently shipping is essentially abandonware. 
+
+Earlier this year, much to the surprise of the Linux community, Ubuntu abruptly announced it would no longer be working on Unity and would instead adopt the GNOME desktop going forward. That was the status of Ubuntu when I received the Galago Pro. Not long after however System76 announced their own Linux distro, dubbed Pop!_ OS, hereafter just Pop OS._
+
+But one thing, don't call it a distro. System76 would like you to call it an operating system. I'm not being entirely sarcastic here either, System76 has a good reason not to call it a distro -- trademark issues. And I don't think calling it an OS or distro is going to matter. The fact is Pop OS contains quite a bit of Ubuntu branding within it, something that may end up raising the hackles of Ubuntu's lawyers. Maybe the Linux Mint devs can give System76 some advice on getting the Ubuntu branding out. Or perhaps, as Chris Fisher of Linux Action News fame suggests, Pop OS can become an official Ubuntu flavor.
+
+Whatever it's future, Pop OS right now is still in the alpha stage. I went ahead and grabbed a copy and installed it on the Galago Pro to see what it was like though. At the moment Pop OS is more or less a custom GNOME theme, with some extentions that make GNOME quite a bit more user-friendly, but not a lot beyond that. Because it's more or less just a GNOME theme with some extensions pre-installed it's perfectly stable. It's Ubuntu with some some different paint. And it's nice enough paint, but not something most System76 customers would probably have any trouble doing on their own.
+
+When I first heard about Pop OS I thought the move made sense. System76 has always tied its brand very closely to Ubuntu and with the future of Ubuntu suddenly looking a bit uncertain it makes sense that System76 would want more control over their future. As it stands the shipping version of Unity that System76 will sell until Pop becomes the default will be "upgraded" to GNOME should users opt to upgrade to 17.10 when it comes out later this year. That's going to be a very confusing upgrade for anyone not expecting it.
+
+Having now played with Pop a bit I'm less sure it's the right move. Developing and maintaining a distro is no small undertaking and in it's current state there just isn't enough to differentiate it from Ubuntu or, for that matter, any other distro with a custom GNOME theme. Beyond that lies the real question -- who is System76's intended audience for Pop OS and what do they want in their desktop?
+
+System76's marketing materials says that they're "focused on the professionals and makers that use their computers to create", which is alarmingly vague since probably the number one issue that plagues distros is a lack of focus. Perhaps I'm being too hard on an alpha release software. And don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting against Pop OS. I hope that System76 is able to put something together that entices more people to try a Linux machine, but right now? Right now let's just say it's an alpha release.
+
+The good news for anyone who wants to run the distro of their choice on System76 hardware is that while there's no official support, you're pretty unlikely to need it. I didn't do a lot of distro testing with the Galago Pro, but I did install Arch so I could get some work done and had no problems with anything but the keyboard backlight, which to me is an unnecessary bit of battery drain anyway (which is to say I didn't even try to get it working, though I believe there is something in AUR that mirrors the PPA System76 uses for its stock Ubuntu).
+
+Beyond this machine though I have run Fedora, Mint, Xubuntu, OpenSUSE and Arch on three different System76 machines at this point and I have never once encountered a hardware problem, aside from the lack of HiDPI support in some desktops, which is hardly System76's fault (the company has even contributed considerable work back upstream to make HiDPI support better in Unity, an effort that now, alas, looks like wasted time). Suffice to say that if you want to run the distro of your choice you'll probably be fine.
+
+## The Galago Pro in the Real World
+
+The Galago Pro was my daily machine for about a month, in that time, while I had some issues as noted above (I don't like the trackpad or the keyboard) by and large it's the best stock Linux machine. The only place that the Dell XPS 13 blows it out of the water is in battery life. As someone who lives full time in an RV and relies on a very limited amount of solar power (300w) for all my energy needs that battery life is a deal breaker. That said, in nearly every other regard this is by far my favorite laptop and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
+
+There's something that comes up in the comments of nearly every review of System76 hardware, the fact that the company doesn't build it's own hardware, it orders everything from upstream hardware vendors, in the case of the Galago Pro that would be the Clevo N130BU (or N131BU). I've never quite understood what the issue is, but it certainly seems to rub some people the wrong way. Could you save a couple bucks by ordering the Clevo directly? Sure, but you'd have no support, no custom PPA to fix hardware issues and no community to get involved in. If you just want a dirt cheap Linux rig, try eBay.
+
+What System76 offers is great experience with a piece of hardware, maybe not the absolute cheapest hardware.
+
+However, that is going to change. 
+