Brief: Station X, a new company based in the UK, is creating beautifully designed high-end Linux laptops and desktops.
The market share for desktop Linux is hardly 2.5%. But we have more new Linux hardware companies coming up to serve the niche.
Station X is the latest entrant in the market with the focus specifically on UK and EU Linux users. The company is based in Bletchley Park – the home of the Second World War Codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing. It was known as ‘Station X’during the war and this is why the company has been named Station X.
Station X designs laptops meticulously crafted to run most Linux. They offer pre-configured systems with a wide range of Linux distributions, ranging from Ubuntu to Arch Linux. They have plans to support around 50 Linux distributions in coming months, something no other Linux system vendor is doing at present.
Station X products
Unlike the elementary OS based Litebook, Station X machines are not cheap in terms of pricing or hardware. The cheapest model is Spitfire and it costs £850. It has plenty of hardware configuration to justify its price tag though.
At present, Station X has the following products:
- Spitfire: Sleek, tiny laptop focused on portability
- Lancaster: A bigger and heavier laptop for gaming
- Hurricane: Another bigger and heavier for graphics
- Blenheim: A uniquely designed laptop for all purposes
- B-29 Superfortress: A desktop with massive upgrade potential
You can find more information about them here.
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Why Station X?
I had a quick email conversation with one of the founders of Station X, Eddie Vassallo. He told me the reason behind starting Station X is that they saw a real niche in the marketplace for a UK/EU-based Linux hardware supplier who could provide very customized builds, fully compliant Linux components.
As distro-hoppers and regular testers of new distros themselves, Eddie and his partners wanted to have machines that could handle any distro. That’s how Station X was conceptualized.
In terms of the hardware, Station X orders the chassis from similar suppliers that makers like System76 and Tuxedo use – which is why you will see some similarities between the products. However, when it comes to the components, Station X is very *picky* in order to ensure that they can be supported by the most Linux distros possible.
Eddie also mentioned that later this year they hope to begin designing their own custom chassis for a number of products – starting with a Linux Ultrabook. They are also planning to collaborate with some Linux distributions to launch branded laptops for the selected distribution.
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Your thoughts?
I am always up for Linux laptops. I use Dell XPS 13 Ubuntu edition and while it’s not Linux exclusive, it is still one of the best Linux laptops out there.
Station X has promised to send me one of their systems for review in next few weeks. I’ll be able to make a comparison with Dell XPS 13 once I receive it.
Meanwhile, what do you think of Station X products? Is it something you would buy? Do share your views in the comment section below.