So am I right in thinking that System76 are working on firmware and drivers for clevo/sager laptops, but then not committing them upstream? Or are they simply not open sourcing them at all?
Riiiight... who knew that Clevo and Sager relied on System 76 to design and develop their systems (/s). It's a good story, but I don't believe it for a minute.
They're saying that System76 works with Clevo and Sager. As in they give them specs and Clevo/Sager get back to them with prototypes. System76 develops firmware for the prototypes across several internal iterations and with some back and forth between them and the manufacturer.
This is a process that would take years, and depending on the contract it is very likely that Clevo/Sager would have all liberty to sell the chassis they developed from the specs System76 gave them.
My first "industry" job back in 1996 was working for Eurocom Laptops in Ottawa, Canada. I think they're still around..
They were/are a Clevo reseller (back then the company was called Kapok), and our leadership and hardware team went to Taiwan for quarterly meetings - along with other territory partners - to have round-table discussions to help the factory decide what to put in upcoming models, and so on..
So I would believe that this is in fact still the process that happens to this day..
The factory (Clevo) focused on sourcing parts and assembling the units, but even back then they leaned pretty heavily on their retail/B2B partners to help them figure out what machines they should be building.
If System76 is moving enough units for them, you can bet they are asking them for input and guidance on what to put in their machines.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/5umefi/system76_refr...