Software

The System76 Launch is an open-source keyboard in that not only the chassis and PCB but even the firmware is available for modders to play around with, courtesy the GitHub repository. There's QMK support too, but ultimately, a lack of a first-party configurator means people wouldn't really have the incentive to make a more custom version unless the keyboard is that good on the hardware front, or is extremely popular. Indeed, it can be a vicious cycle too and so I was happy to see System76 put out its own configurator available for Windows, macOS, Linux distros, and a specific one for Pop!_OS. I can only speak for the Windows experience here so keep that in mind. The latest version at the time of testing was v1.2.0 and the installer takes up 14.5 MB of space. Installation is trivial, as seen above, although without any options for the user to decide on the install directory and whether or not to have a desktop/start menu shortcut.


The final install size is ~47 MB on disk, and the program is quite light on system resources too. With the keyboard connected to my PC, the software drivers recognized it after a minute or so. This unfortunate lag appears to be present throughout the configurator. It's also buggy, in that choosing certain lighting effects end up crashing the program outright, which unfortunately, is the quickest action you will experience, given everything else is slow. The reason is that any changes made within the software result in an automatic re-writing of the keyboard firmware, as opposed to the option to compile all changes, save them together, and then update the keyboard firmware in a single step. There are clearly improvements to be done here—at least on Windows—however the latest July update appears to have been mostly to add support for the Launch Lite itself. On a more positive note, the UI is well laid out and looks attractive, and it also scales quite well, so that's a big plus compared to some of the recent keyboard software drivers we've seen here.

There's not a lot to really talk about here that the video above does not already do. By default, the home page is a virtual keyboard showcasing the base layer on the System76 Launch. Hitting "Configure Keyboard" takes you to key mapping on four layers, with the first two pre-populated with logical key configurations and the latter two simply using layer two as a template. You can re-map all keys on any layer here, which can be used as profile-substitutes that can be pulled up for specific applications. There are several key mapping options available and yet the typical reader here will find more from mainstream suspects if they do not care about going with other QMK routes, for example. This is all the more seen when it comes to the LEDs configurator, whereby there are several preset lighting effects to choose from and modify via the on-screen keyboard that unfortunately does not immediately light up in response to changes to indicate the chosen effect. You have per-key 16.8 M colors on offer, but here too getting the specific color you want involves two sliders for hue and saturation that take you to a set position in a circle as opposed to simply being able to set the R/G/B channel levels from 0-255. I also don't understand why there are 176 brightness steps unless it's another 1776 reference, but it's just not as polished and extensive as I'd like to see from a keyboard aimed at the premium market.