Always sad when a Linux-focused business fails. ZaReason announced recently that they're no longer in business.
ZaReason aren't even a name that was heard all that often, which is part of the problem. You hear a lot about System76, TUXEDO, Slimbook, Star Labs and other Linux vendors but ZaReason gradually reduced their output and now we know why.
In the statement they sent out it mentioned how their product line was getting smaller and their tech support was "slowing down to a crawl". So what happened? Well, "the pandemic has been the final KO blow" they said with their "little town" being hit hard and they've been unable to recover from it. They officially shut on November 24, 2020. No other reasons were given but it's likely increased competition from the previously mentioned vendors plus the likes of Dell, Lenovo and others in the Linux space also not helping them.
Thankfully, we do have plenty of hardware support now in 2020 so it's not a big problem.
Their website is now just a blank page. You can see the full statement they sent out to people below:
Quoting: bekoFirst time I hear about this shop at all. Still no idea where it was located. EST is a hint but that's it.
Never heard of it either. The date format is a hint as well. The problem with US stores is that when you've added tax, shipping and customs fees, it's not really worth it. So not that surprising that US stores remain fairly unknown in Europe.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200513194544/https://zareason.com/help.php?section=contactus&mode=update
Sad to see them go, they seem to have been around since 2007.
They also hadn't been putting themselves out there, so to speak; when I bought my most recent laptop, Zareason wasn't even on my list of contenders. Contrast that to System76, which has been making waves for awhile.
The laptop ended up dying with little explanation a couple of months later.
Last edited by Magamo on 7 December 2020 at 1:47 pm UTC
Quoting: EhvisNever heard of it either. The date format is a hint as well. The problem with US stores is that when you've added tax, shipping and customs fees, it's not really worth it. So not that surprising that US stores remain fairly unknown in Europe.Still, System76 is known (by word, at least). So sounds to me like PR department did something horrible wrong (or not at all).
(...)
It's almost inevitable that small boutique start-ups will be swept aside by bigger, more powerful players enter their market. But bigger players only ever entering the market because they smell money. So, while it saddens me to see Zareason slip into history, I'm heartened for the future of Linux by the presence of Dell, Lenovo, and System 76. It says to me that Linux is hearty and healthy and spreading.
Last edited by Nanobang on 8 December 2020 at 12:04 am UTC
I would love a system 76 desktop but way to expensive for hardware inside especially once you apply customs tax to the postage costs.
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