I received via UPS and set up my new super-powered Linux desktop computer a couple of days ago from System76.
Now I can fully support, maintain, and improve Mathomatic.
Here is my review:
On July 13, 2011, I purchased a high-end Wildebeest Performance desktop from System76. It was built, tested, and shipped within a week of my purchase, because I spent $200 for one day shipping.
The system arrived at my door just fine, but nothing extra included, just the box. I cannot tell the 2 USB-3.0 ports from the 6 USB-2.0 ports, because there is no available documentation on the hardware that I can see. The headphone and microphone ports on the front do not fit 1/8" plugs, I do not know if they are broken or use some new type of connector. There were no extra cables inside the box to add any drives. So I just used it as is.
The computer worked without changes first time. I was able to use most of the features of this new, 8 core 3.4 GHz computer with 16 Gigabytes of RAM, it seems like a fine purchase. The latest Ubuntu version 11.04 (Natty) seems to be flaky as usual, I am going to have to switch to another distro someday. But this is a powerful software development computer, it compiles Mathomatic in 1 second! And VirtualBox runs much faster and better on it, I can view HD videos just fine by running video playback software in any OS running on a virtual machine.
The BIOS and motherboard are Intel brand re-branded to System76. Hopefully this computer will serve me well for years to come. I have reduced the CPU speed a little by putting it in OnDemand mode, my previous computer may have burned out early because I always had it running at the maximum speed.
A few fixable glitches with this new computer so far. That's my report. Questions are welcome.