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Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

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Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#132

Post by ttub »

deathanatos wrote: post #104
lcnmrn wrote: post #80

New MacBook Pro 13" sans Touch Bar is the best for what you need.

I just got a new MBP 13", without the touchbar. The keyboard is terrible, IMO, compared to prior models. The keys are shallower, and give less; compared to e.g., a Lenovo Thinkpad (I also bought recently), it's like typing on the desk itself. No give. My "a" key gets stuck, and it's not two weeks old. Before you buy one, go by an Apple store and type on one for yourself. The adapter situation is nuts. the MBP 13" w/o…

I share your sentiment.

I got a 13" TB in Novemember, and I just had to return it to an apple store and have the keyboard replaced because the shift/enter key was stuck. The TB (100 % gimmick) also sometimes randomly looses light on some of the buttons (which re-appear when I touch them)

I thought I would get used to the keyboard, but I dislike it so much that I am selling it and getting a 2015 MBP instead. This proved to be one gigantic time-wasting, expensive, and annoying experience.

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#133

Post by bluehazed »

uniclaude wrote: post #98
soyiuz wrote: post #81

I recommend the Asus Flip Chromebook (running Debian under Crouton for development) or a refurbished Lenovo X2xx series. The ASUS is tiny for travel. The X2xx is larger, still pretty mobile, and built like a tank (military spec moisture and dust resistance). As a side-note, the ASUS died on me during my India trip due to moisture.

I second the lenovo recommendation. An X220t with 16gb ram and ssd would fit your needs and budget for sure!

Not to mention the optional 2nd mSATA SSD!

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#135

Post by nextos »

eustar wrote: post #129
nextos wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for checking this. Very few laptops support this, and its badly documented. But it's IMHO the difference between good and superb Linux support. Run sudo acpid, will start the daemon in the background. Then run acpi_listen. It will block waiting for events. E.g. if you press media keys, un/plug the adapter, etc you should start seeing events. One per line. Just leave it running on battery for a while. Hopefully…

Ok, thanks for the instructions! It seems to work, this time I did 'sudo acpid' and 'acpi_listen' gave me following output (scroll the code field below to the right in case my comments there are hidden): // Notebook was at the beginning unplugged $ acpi_listen ^[[14~^[[15~^[[20~ac_adapter ACPI0003:00 00000000 00000001 // I pressed three media keys and plugged in the power adapter battery PNP0C0A:00 00000080 00000001…

Great! It'd be superb to confirm the laptop ACPI emits discharge events every once in a while, or when a threshold level is reached. Then you can write really neat udev rules.

Plug n unplug events are more common. Battery ones are quite infrequent.

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#136

Post by wj »

heywire wrote: post #66
johngalt wrote: post #56

Considering your goals and price range. I'd recommend shopping the refurb market. Specifically business laptops that are off lease. Bigcorp IT departments tend to cycle their hardware every 3-4 years and flood the market with used cheap/good used laptops. They won't be 'ultrabooks' but they will be cheap, reliable and easy to maintain. Something like a Dell E6430 would be a good bet. https://www.dellrefurbished.com/l…

This is the exact laptop that my employer provides me. While it is not thin or light, it is a pleasant machine to use. I have no problems using it on my lap on the couch or at a coffee shop. My machine is configured as an i5-3340 with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD (I also added a second SSD in place of the CD/DVD drive). I frequently have 3 or more VMs running under VMware, an instance or two of Visual Studio, Chrome, Out…

I tried Ubuntu on my c720 and had issues with the cursor. I think it might have been me brushing my hand against the trackpad which I believe the Chromebook os recognizes as accidental but Ubuntu did not.

Have you had this issue?

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#137

Post by heywire »

wj wrote: post #136
heywire wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact laptop that my employer provides me. While it is not thin or light, it is a pleasant machine to use. I have no problems using it on my lap on the couch or at a coffee shop. My machine is configured as an i5-3340 with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD (I also added a second SSD in place of the CD/DVD drive). I frequently have 3 or more VMs running under VMware, an instance or two of Visual Studio, Chrome, Out…

I tried Ubuntu on my c720 and had issues with the cursor. I think it might have been me brushing my hand against the trackpad which I believe the Chromebook os recognizes as accidental but Ubuntu did not. Have you had this issue?

I don't remember having that issue specifically, but I do know that on a fresh install the touchpad is not very responsive. I'm currently running arch with the following as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf:

  Section "InputClass"
      Identifier "touchpad catchall"
      Driver "synaptics"
      MatchIsTouchpad "on"
      MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
      Option "FingerLow" "5"
      Option "FingerHigh" "10"
      Option "VertScrollDelta" "-25"
      Option "HorizScrollDelta" "-25"
      Option "CoastingSpeed" "5"
      Option "CoastingFriction" "20"
      Option "TapButton1" "1"
      Option "TapButton2" "3"
      Option "TapButton3" "2"
  EndSection
There's also a specialized Ubuntu-derivative called GalliumOS [1] that you might try. They try to work out all these configuration oddities before you get it loaded.

[1] https://galliumos.org/

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#138

Post by davidbanham »

wj wrote: post #136
heywire wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact laptop that my employer provides me. While it is not thin or light, it is a pleasant machine to use. I have no problems using it on my lap on the couch or at a coffee shop. My machine is configured as an i5-3340 with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD (I also added a second SSD in place of the CD/DVD drive). I frequently have 3 or more VMs running under VMware, an instance or two of Visual Studio, Chrome, Out…

I tried Ubuntu on my c720 and had issues with the cursor. I think it might have been me brushing my hand against the trackpad which I believe the Chromebook os recognizes as accidental but Ubuntu did not. Have you had this issue?

Palm detection is turned off by default for some reason, but you can just turn it back on.

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#139

Post by scholia »

tekklloneer wrote: post #125
scholia wrote: post #106

> decent 4 core Cherry Trail Z8300 CPU None of the Atom chips is decent for anything that requires heavy lifting. You really need a Core processor. > 4Gb of RAM, 64 Gb of ROM 4GB is workable but 8GB is obviously better. However, I think you mean 64GB of storage. This is usually in the form of an eMMC chip soldered to the motherboard. The performance is similar to an ordinary SD card. It's nowhere near the performance…

> This is usually in the form of an eMMC chip soldered to the motherboard. This is something to watch out for, but hasn't been done commonly for years. Those are the most likely parts to fail and manufacturers hate replacing an entire mobo under warranty just to replace a flash chip.

Thanks for the info. What do they do instead?

Re: Ask HN: Ultrabook for programming?

#140

Post by imglorp »

bluedino wrote: post #85
imglorp wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. I have a T440S which go for around 300 used. Decently thin and light with 100pct linux support and one of the last "real" lenovo typing friendly keyboards. Note the Yogas, Carbon, etc. all have chicklet keys now.

>> one of the last "real" lenovo typing friendly keyboards And the terrible buttonless trackpad

True.

I get around that with a little synaptics hackage in the x.org vicinity to minimize palm touches and give me three buttons.

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