I've had my Lemur for just under 24 hours now, and because when I was initially making the buying decision there was a definite lack of reviews, I thought I'd post my preliminary results.

The first thing I have to mention is this thing is sexy. The pictures on the site really don't do it any form of justice, and honestly, the pictures on s76 make it look a bit thicker than it actually is. But now, let's get down to the details.

Out of the Box

When I got my Lemur, I pulled it out of the box, plugged it in, and turned it on. Then I was ready to do things. It asked me simply to create a username/password, just the standard fare, and then I was ready to fly, everything working. That said, I'm personally not a fan of Ubuntu (Arch Linux guy), but if I was, this is absolutely amazing - I considered staying on Ubuntu for a while solely because the user experience I felt right at that moment was a bit greater than on OSX - which is definitely saying something. Something I really appreciated as a Linux user was the fact that I closed the lid and it went into suspend. Just like that. Awesome.

Look and Feel

When I said the pictures on the site didn't do it justice, I wasn't kidding, but it's not all in a entirely awesome way. Let me explain: the pictures on the system76 site make the laptop look very grey and monotone. The shell looks like it's very matte. That is not the case. My shell looks a brown granite colour, with little -- for lack of a better word -- sparklies embedded it in. It also has a glossy coating that while it does attract a few fingerprints really feels like it's going to protect my shell.

Yes, it does differ from the pictures on the site a considerable amount, and that kind of bothered me. What doesn't bother me is that it still looks friggin' awesome. I think I might actually prefer it's real state to the impression I got from the site.

As far as build quality goes, this thing feels really sturdy. I want to throw it down the stairs just to see it come out unscathed then I want to punch myself in the face for even thinking of doing such a thing to such a beautiful piece of hardware. The only negative I can find in the build quality is the plastic border around the screen, because it's plastic and compared to the rest of the computer it feels cheap. That said, it doesn't look like particularly cheap plastic (like my old white macbook), and I doubt I'll find this stuff chipping away any time soon.

Finally, this thing is light. It's so light. One can read a number (3.4lbs) and say "yeah, I guess that's pretty light", but I still find myself keeling over in shock every time I lift it. I can walk around with it on one hand, typing with the other for extended periods of time and my arm doesn't get tired (but maybe that's more to do with my arms being a crazy gun show).

Performance

There's not really much to be said for performance on this laptop - especially since I use radically different software than most people who buy this laptop would. I experience absolutely no slowdowns, doing anything. Everything in Archlinux (with xfce) is snappy, and I can do plenty of multitasking without feeling dragged down.

However, when I first turned this laptop on -- and I want to stress that this is completely anecdotal and should be taken with a grain of salt -- I experienced some very slow feelings when I went to watch a quick youtube video in firefox. Whether this is firefox's error, Ubuntu's error, a lack of updates or me just being impatient, I don't know, but I thought I'd mention it. People should use Chrome anyway.

Touchpad and Keyboard

The touchpad feels wonderful. Granted it's a little narrower than I expected from the pictures - I'm coming from a MacBook so I expected it to be similar in size. It's probably closer to 2/3 the total size of the MacBook trackpad but the physical button is much narrower, leaving more tracking space. Yes, there is only one physical button, but it right clicks by just clicking on the right side instead of the left.

Multitouch does exist on this (in the form of two finger scrolling at least). When I was on Ubuntu, the checkbox for two finger scrolling was greyed out, but again, I'm not familiar with Ubuntu, so that's probably my error. I can definitely confirm that adding "VertTwoFingerScrolling" "on" to my synaptics conf definitely enables two finger scrolling -- and a very nice implementation at that. On other touchpads I've found that I had to have the two fingers horizontal to each other in order for it to work, but as long as two fingers are on the pad moving in the same direction it'll scroll. I appreciate that.

The keyboard I'm still getting used to. Each key is individually larger than they were on my MacBook -- which is fine -- but that is what accounts for the smaller trackpad. My main quarrels with the keyboard at this point are the arrow keys, they're a little smaller than the rest of the keys, but they're also cramped, so it's easy to mis-press them. That's minor however, and once my muscle memory catches up it should be a non-issue. I'm not sure if this is a specific error on mine, but the rightmost column of keys (home, pgup, etc.) slants slightly to the right, whereas the column adjacent to it slants a tiny bit to the left, making a small little peak there. It's hardly noticeable unless you're looking for it, and it's not a huge deal, but I definitely did notice it.

The keyboard does have great feedback, and as I've typed this whole post on it, it feels very nice to do. However, it doesn't feel as sturdy as I would like, and there's some squeaking and flexing when I press the Esc key. That worries me. The Ubuntu key is a sticker. I didn't think it was a sticker. I was wrong.

Shipping

I live in Canada, and the $100 for shipping was a hard pill to swallow. However, this does include brokerage, which could have cost up to $50 so it's not entirely unreasonable. The main thing I was pleased with though, was the speed in which I got it. I was holding my laptop exactly seven days after placing the order. And that's seven total days, five business days. Considering the estimates of 8 business days in manufacturing, and four business days shipping, that was wonderful. However, the fact that I got the base laptop might have something to do with that.

Just a side note for any Canadian purchasers, the UPS guy charged the $30 tax at the door, but didn't accept debit. Cash or Credit only.

Misc

There are a few other things I'd like to talk about. Foremost, battery life. I can't really say I was disappointed with it, because system76, as wonderful as they are, told me exactly how long it would last. And that is about 2 hours. And in the days of MacBook Air's lasting months, that's not really such a heartwarming spec, so the fact that they flat out said their exact battery life without attempting to inflate it earns them quite a bit of respect in my books. 2 hours of life, after some thought, is fine for me. If it's not for you, I think that would be the biggest consideration before buying this laptop. That said, it is definitely understandable why it's so short, considering how incredibly light this laptop is.

The screen is beautiful. I couldn't even find a negative to post about it.

The speakers are loud. Loud enough to show my friends videos and things in a mildly noisy room. They're no 5.1 theatre surround sound speakers, but they sound good for something that weighs less than the Big Mac I had for lunch.

One thing that I just don't understand is the function keys. F6 is volume up, F5 is volume down, F4 is sleep, F3 is mute. Wtf? I know I can remap them - and I have - but the little pictures are still like that. I'm not even really that annoyed about it, on account of my ability to fix it, but it definitely made me laugh a bit.

The webcam gives a nice crisp picture. Coming from my MacBook's cam which was grainy and noisy and not really pleasant to take pictures with, this is a nice breath of fresh air.

Summary

I love this laptop. I may have mentioned some negatives, but I feel people should know about these before buying this laptop. They do not detract from my extreme enjoyment of this wonderful piece of hardware.

However, I did not mention my largest disappointment with this laptop yet. When ordering it, I put in the comments "if you draw a little picture of a penguin with a sharpie on the box, I will love you forever." When I received the shipment, there was no penguin present. Smh.

Overall, if you like light, thin, sexy piece of hardware running free software, get this. If you like permanent marker drawings of FOSS mascots, you might be disappointed with this purchase.

UPDATE: By request, here are a few more images: