Misadventures in a Non-Mac Laptop

I'm a Linux guy. I prefer Linux over OS X for a variety of reasons, but I have mostly Mac laptops because Apple makes better hardware.

I bought a System76 Galago UltraPro. I hoped that it would be everything my 13" MacBook Pro Retina is plus have 16GB of RAM.

I spent 5 minutes with the Galago and it's not good enough.

Granted the display was very nice, but that's where the very nice ended.

Here are the issues:

• The keyboard is junk. The feel is bad and you have to hit the keys really hard to make them register. Not okay for someone with fingers on the keyboard 12 hours a day.
• The trackpad is jumpy. I understand that Linux distributions have issues with trackpads but System76 is supposed to be a Linux company and if they can't get the drivers right on the systems they deliver, they are not worth the price premium over XoticPC or the other whitebox laptop vendors.
• The case feels very plastic and cheap. For a $1,300 laptop, maybe I don't get MacBook Pro aluminum case quality, but at least give me Dell plastic quality.

For those reasons, I am very sadly (because I really wanted to like if not love this laptop), returning the Galago.

Maybe in the future System76 can do a better job of making sure the machines they sell have keyboards and trackpads the match Logitech quality.