But they've actually gone one step further than just manufacturing their own case: the "Thelio Io" board that they mention looks very much like a replacement for (part of) the motherboard's "embedded controller" (EC) functionality, and all of the design files and source code [1] certainly seems to meet the criteria to be called open hardware with open source firmware.
For some context, the EC in most laptops is usually a highly proprietary ASIC (good luck even finding a datasheet) running a blob of proprietary firmware on an 8051 core. It's responsible for handling the power and lid switches, sequencing the powering on and off of the main system CPU, controlling fan speed and temperature sensors, etc.
What Carl and co are doing here is hard, and more than most PC manufacturers in the US are doing. Is it perfect? Of course not but they are doing the best they can given their resources. Given more I have no doubt they would do more.
Gotta start somewhere. Kudos to them for actually trying to manufacture something in the US instead of throwing up their hands and saying “those jobs aren’t coming back.”
People seem to miss the forest for the trees. Anyone who thinks a company as small as System76 could make every part of a computer in the US is just delusional. It'd take billions of dollars just to build a fab for CPUs, let alone everything other part.
There's been growing discontent in the US about the loss of our manufacturing capability, but instead of encouraging companies like this to bootstrap (some) manufacturing by building the parts that make sense here, people choose to mock them.
Meanwhile, Apple makes products completely in China, slaps a sticker that says "Proudly designed in California" and everyone is all oohs and aahs are every time they launch a product.
I guess we are talking about different things. Yes, there is the obvious issue of automation and increases in efficiency decreasing the number of jobs in manufacturing, so you are correct.
There's also a different issue: strategically. it's pretty bad to depend on a handful of countries (China and Taiwan mostly) to make most of the products we consume. If - $deity forbid - the US and China went to war, it'd take years to get anywhere close to the manufacturing output we currently take for granted.
On the other hand, one could argue that such dependence makes the likelihood of such a war, and the loss of life it'd lead to, almost nil.
