How it Began

It all started when Cameron Ryan, a fan of System76 and teacher in the Littleton Public School District came in for a tour in August 2022. Amazed at all the machinery and nerdery going on at System76, Cameron decided his students needed to see what is happening in Denver, Colorado. A field trip was arranged to bring 2 high school classes with roughly 60 students to the System76 headquarters.

The group came from the EPIC campus in Littleton, Colorado. The Explorative Pathways for Innovative Careers empowers students in transformational, relevant and engaging learning experiences to excite the wonder of learning. Students spend part of their day at the home high school and the other part at the EPIC campus. This was no ordinary school day for these teens!

The day started like any other big day... with an epic breakfast for the entire team.

The tours started in Production at the lasers, and worked its way around through the keyboards and ended at the assembly stations.

Kyle, our head machinest, gave demonstrations at the Mill and the Trumatic lasers, where the students asked great questions about recycling and safety.

While one group was touring, the other group was listening to a presentation about open source technology and careers related to the field.

The students also got to learn about how the founder, Carl Richell started System76 and the meaning behind the name. They learned about System76’s mission to build a powerful, and completely open source computer.

The tour winded it’s way through the mills, bending and powder coating stations, and landed in the keyboard area where each student had an opportunity to learn about the Launch keyboard line, touch the different switches and get hands on with all our keyboard types.

The tour ended in our Build area where it’s important to remind the tour group that, although they’ve seen a lot of machinery in the factory, it’s important to know that there’s a lot of human touch and hand-crafting that goes into each build, which results in higher quality and products built with passion.

Frequently Asked Questions from the Highschoolers:

As the kids lined up to get back on the bus, a few of them asked specific questions.

1. Q: How  how do you  get into career fields where you operate machinery and build computers?
   A: Getting your foot in the door and getting as much experience as possible is always a plus. Any education to further your knowledge is helpful, as well as internships. If you don’t want to go the college route, you can find apprenticeships to get  more of a hands-on education.that will help fuel the journey into the land of computer manufacturing.

2. Q: Another question asked was about why System76 would give away something for free, like Pop!_OS. We believe in the ethos and community that surrounds open source technology, and believe there shouldn’t be limits to anyone’s potential, especially with software. By giving it away for free, we’re encouraging the community to build, modify and improve upon the operating system and to make it their own.

3. Q: Can I work at System76?
A: If you are 18+ and interested in computers, email us about seasonal help. Email us at careers@system76.com for more info.

It was an honor to be able to host such a smart group of future nerds and hope we stirred some interest in the field of computer manufacturing.

If your group would like to tour System76, contact Emma@System76.com to arrange a date and time.