To celebrate the launch of the open source desktop, Thelio, System76 is providing funds to open source projects throughout the holiday season.

Release for the press Nov 8 - Jan 3: Last week, System76 launched Thelio, a powerful new open hardware desktop computer handcrafted with a free and open future in mind. The ethos of open source removes the limitations set by proprietary restrictions, empowering users to be creators. With the launch of Thelio, System76 hopes to push open hardware further than it has ever gone before and continue to inspire the masses to explore open source tools. This will only work if these tools are seen as superior to proprietary ones.



To help accomplish this end goal, System76 is giving back to the open source community. While their desktop includes open source design features, their laptops aren’t there yet. So through the holiday season, a portion of profits from laptop purchases will go toward funding open source projects until January 3rd. Specifically, projects include KiCad, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Free Software Foundation (FSF), and the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA).



“We picked these four projects to represent a wide array of efforts within open source initiatives.” Says Louisa Bisio at System76.

FSF has been an important source of funding for many open source projects, as well as educating the public about free and open technology.

OSHWA encourages technological research and development, and uses the Open Source Hardware certification to help people easily identify products that embody the community definition of open source hardware.

EFF ensures that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as technology progresses.

KiCad, a software tool from CERN, has been an instrumental tool in designing System76 hardware.

System76 recognizes each project as essential proponents of the development and improvement of open source technology.

In order to draw attention to the raising of funds for these organizations, System76 is incentivizing purchases through laptop sales. The promotional video, Tuxmas, produced in a comical System76-style holiday tale, stars the mascot for Linux computing himself: Tux. The laptop discounts and the video can be seen at: https://system76.com/specials. Every purchase of a laptop donates 10$ toward open projects and customers can save $30-$100, or up to $160-$370 with upgraded components.

You can donate directly to KiCad at: http://kicad-pcb.org/

Enjoy!