With room for up to 96 GB of memory and 8 TB of storage, this little Linux desktop isn’t really thinking small about anything but form.
The folks at System76 have been busy designing a new form factor for their Thelio line, and it’s about ready for release.
I just found out about this on Sunday morning. Checking the social sites we follow, I found a post from Carl Richell, System76’s founder and CEO, showing off the new System76 Thelio Prime, which is due to arrive on November 18. According to my calendar, that puts its debut on the Wednesday after the Wednesday after next, or in just about two weeks and three days.
The post links to a dedicated Thelio Prime page that System76 has already put online to preview the product. “Get your desk back,” the page shouts in large fonts and all caps (but with enough reserve to omit an exclamation mark). “An 11-liter Linux desktop that fits almost anywhere, without giving up on performance.”
That measurement, of course, is supposed to indicate a small size, but if you’re like me, it absolutely doesn’t help tell me exactly how small (I vaguely remember what a 3 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper looks like, but it’s been something like 30 years since I actually had one in the fridge to use as an example). Luckily, there are pictures showing how it looks next to a banana, and better yet, dimensions listed in the specs:
11.3″ L x 5.9″ W x 11.1″ H (288mm × 148.9mm × 281.9mm) Vertical Orientation with Feet
And although the pictures make it look like it has entirely too few ports for the modern age, they don’t show the backside, which is where the specs say it’s reasonably well laden with ports:
Top Ports
1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-C), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type A), Mic, HeadphoneRear Ports
2 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1, 4 x USB 2.0 Ports, 1 x BIOS Flashback ButtonRear Audio
Mic in, Line outVideo Ports
Integrated graphics: 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, supports DP 1.4. Other options are dependent on graphics selection. Most include 3 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI port.
Like everything else that System76 creates, this one will be highly configurable, even though it looks as if the choice of processors will be confined to the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series. For graphics — which these days also means AI use — you’ll get AMD Radeon integrated graphics, with AMD or Nvidia GPU if applicable.
Let’s not forget the one big thing that really separates System76 from the crowd: the operating system. Thelio Prime’s default Linux distro and desktop environment — Pop!_OS with COSMIC DE — are designed in-house at System76 by the people who built the hardware. “No bloatware, no distractions you didn’t choose. Open source, and entirely yours,” they say. If, for some reason you don’t want Pop!_OS, they’ll be happy to ship it to you with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Other than that, you’re free to put any distro on it you want when it arrives, without the risk of voiding your warranty.
The preview page lists Thelio’s starting price at $1,599. Configured your way, for memory you’ll be able to order it with up to 96 GB Dual Channel DDR5 and for storage up 8 TB — supports 1 x M.2 PCIe Gen5 NVMe, 1 x M.2 PCIe Gen4 NVMe.
The page even asks if you want to be the first to know (I’m pretty sure they really mean one of the first and not actually the very first) when they’re ready to ship, and includes a button that says GET NOTIFIED and promises no spam ever. I tried to link to the button, but I couldn’t, so you’ll just have to go to the page and click it yourself.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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